2.  .//.'o 

PRINCETON,  N.  J.  *^ 


Purchased  by  the  Hamill  Missionary  Fund. 


JV  6455    .M2  1904 

McLanahan,  Samuel. 

Our  people  of  foreign  speech 


Digitized  by  tlie  Internet  Arcliive 
in  2015 


https://arcliive.org/details/ourpeopleofforeiOOmcla 


OUR  PEOPLE  OF 
FOREIGN  SPEECH 


Our  People  of 
Foreign  Speech 


A  handbook  distinguishing 
and  describing  those  in  the 
United  States  whose  native 
tongue  is  other  than  English 

With  Particular  Reference  to 
Religious  Work  atnong  Them 

SAMUEL  McLANAHAN 


New  York      Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 

London    and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,   1904,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth'  Avenue 
Chicago :  63  Washington  Street 
Toronto  :  27  Richmond  Street,  W 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh :  30  St.  Mary  Street 


Preface 


To  the  Greek  the  men  of  other  nations, 
however  diverse  among  themselves,  were 
all  alike  barbarians.  To  the  Jew  the  man 
of  another  race,  no  matter  what,  was  simply  a  gen- 
tile. In  the  Orient  to-day  every  European  or 
American  is  a  Frank.  So  to  many  of  us,  all  those 
in  our  land  who  use  other  tongues  than  English 
are  classed  together  in  an  indiscriminate  mass  as 
"  foreigners."  We  know  that  such  people  are  here, 
casual  observation  and  current  periodicals  inform  us 
that  their  number  is  increasing ;  but,  cut  off  from 
them  as  most  of  us  are,  by  language,  residence  and 
employments,  we  know  little  of  who  they  are  and 
how  many,  of  whence  they  come  and  where  they 
settle.  We  fail  to  note  any  distinctions  which  may 
exist  among  them  in  speech,  in  intelligence,  in 
social  customs,  in  morality  or  in  religion. 

In  a  few  places  some  Christian  workers  have 
accurately  informed  themselves  concerning  the 
foreigners  in  their  own  localities.  The  general  facts 
about  certain  nationalities  throughout  the  country 
are  easily  accessible.  Each  denomination  is  in- 
formed regarding  its  own  work.  But  the  writer  has 
not  been  able  to  find  any  single  source  of  informa- 

5 


6 


Preface 


tion  covering  the  whole  field  and  yet  so  distinguish- 
ing and  describing  its  parts  as  to  afford  an  intelli- 
gent comprehension  of  it.  Appointed  to  secure 
such  information,  by  a  recent  conference  of  men 
directing  home  mission  work,  he  found  its  collection 
from  many  scattered  sources  a  work  of  unexpected 
magnitude  and  difficulty.  These  circumstances, 
coupled  with  a  profound  impression  of  the  impor- 
tance of  the  subject  and  the  call  for  enlightenment 
upon  it,  which  was  created  by  his  investigation, 
have  led  to  the  preparation  of  this  manual. 

The  extent  and  perplexity  of  the  subject  and  the 
limits  of  time  and  space,  were  there  not  other  rea- 
sons, would  forbid  any  claim  to  completeness  or 
adequacy.  But  he  has  sought  to  include  all  the 
principal  elements  and  factors,  and  to  be  accurate  in 
that  which  is  stated. 

He  has  drawn  on  the  census  and  immigration 
reports  of  the  United  States  Government,  and  the 
reports  or  other  publications  of  the  several  denomi- 
nations for  his  statistics.  Many  independent  cal- 
culations and  comparisons  have,  however,  been 
included.  The  grouping  upon  linguistic  lines 
followed  in  general,  has  been  set  aside  in  some 
instances  for  practical  considerations.  Of  necessity* 
the  race  titles  and  groupings  of  the  Immigration 
Reports,  which  are  popular  and  convenient,  rather 
than  scientific,  have  been  used. 

The  book  is  issued  in  the  hope  that  it  may  prove 
a  handy  reference  for  all  engaged  in  work  for  people 


Preface 


7 


of  foreign  speech,  a  text-book  for  Missionary  Study 
Classes,  a  source  of  information  for  the  general 
reader,  and  for  all,  a  means  of  stimulating  missionary 
interest  and  activity  on  behalf  of  the  class  of  which 
it  treats.  Reliance  for  attaining  these  results  is 
placed  upon  the  interest  and  the  logic  of  facts. 

Thanks  are  due  to  the  officers  of  the  Mission 
Boards  and  other  religious  agencies  and  to  many 
private  persons  for  information  furnished,  also  to 
Messrs.  Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.  of  the  World's 
Work  for  charts  appended. 

S.  McL. 

Lawrenceville,  New  Jersey. 


Contents 


I.  The  Great  Migration     .        .        .  .11 

Its  Numbers — Its  Fluctuations — Its  Recent 
Change — Assimilation  the  Ideal. — The 
Public  School  and  ^Religion  as  Factors — 
Analysis  Requisite. 

II.  The  Teutonic  Group      .        .        .  .17 

1.  Germans. 

2.  Scandinavians — Danes. 

Norwegians. 
Swedes. 

3.  Hollanders. 

III.  The  Finns  and  Magyars    (Hungarians)    .  28 

IV.  The  Slavic  Group  .       .       .       .  .34 

1.  Bohemians. 

2.  Slovaks. 

3.  Poles. 

4.  Lithuanians.  (?) 

5.  Russians. 

6.  Ruthenians. 

7.  Croatians  and  Slovenians. 

8.  Dalmatians,  Bosnians  and  Herzegovinians. 

9.  Bulgarians,  Servians  and  Montenegrins. 

V.  The  Jews        .       .        .       .       ,  -59 

VI.  The  Romance  Tongues     ....  62 

1.  Roumanians. 

2.  French,  (European  and  Canadian.) 

3.  Spanish. 

4.  Portuguese. 

5.  Italians. 

9 


10  Contents 

VII.  Tongues  of  the  Levant   „       ...  75 

1.  Turks. 

2.  Syrians. 

3.  Armenians. 

4.  Greeks. 

VIII.  The  Chinese  and  Japanese        ...  80 

IX.  Some  Older  Residents      ....  85 

1.  American  Indians. 

2.  Mexicans  or  Spanish-Americans. 

3.  Welsh. 

X.  Are  Missions  in  These  Languages  Needed  ?  93 

Gospel  Unknown- — English  not  Understood 
— Present  Agencies  Inadequate — Difficul- 
ties— Encouragements. 

XI.  Agencies  Which  may  be  Employed     .        .  97 

The  Printing  Press — Colporteurs  and  Vis- 
itors— Kindergartens  and  Schools — The 
Sunday-School  —  Churches  and  Ministers 
— Training  Schools  for  Workers — Spirit 
and  Motive. 

XII.  Table  of  Those  Who  Could  Not  Speak 

English,  (Census  1900)  .        .        .  .103 

XIII.  Diagrams  Showing  Relative  Numbers  and 

Distribution  of  Principal  Nationalities  .  104 


I 


THE  GREAT  MIGRATION 

The  greatest  migration  of  people  in  historic 
times  has  taken  place  within  the  memory  of 
persons  now  living.  Its  principal  its 
goal  has  been  the  United  States.  Numbers. 
In  the  years  of  recorded  immigration  from  1820  to 
1903  twenty-one  million  (21,092,614)  have  come, 
and  more  than  one  half  of  them  (11,395,141)  since 
1880.  Every  one  has  not  settled  here  permanently, 
but  the  vast  majority  have  done  so.  If  the  census 
taker  of  1900  had  destroyed  every  one  whom  he 
enumerated  in  the  New  England  States,  New 
York,  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania,  the  total 
immigration  noted  above  would  have  repeopled 
these  states  and  Nevada  besides.  It  could  have 
put  two  people  for  every  one  found  in  1900  in  the 
nine  South  Atlantic  States  from  Delaware  to 
Florida,  and  five  for  every  one  found  in  the  eleven 
Rocky  Mountain  and  Pacific  Coast  States  and 
Territories,  with  Alaska  and  Hawaii  added.  It  has 
included  more  people  than  dwelt  in  the  whole 
United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  in 
1820,  when  our  statistics  begin,  and  almost  as  many 
as  were  in  the  whole  United  States  in  1850  (23,191,- 
876). 

II 


12       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


The  only  parallel  suggested  is  the  great  move- 
ment of  barbaric  tribes  which  overran  Europe  and 
The  Only  finally  submerged  the  Western  Roman 
Parallel.  Empire.  There  are  some  interesting 
analogies  and  there  may  be  prophetic  teaching  for 
us  in  that  movement.  The  same  great  races  are 
involved,  and  in  the  same  general  order. 

But  the  contrasts  are  far  more  striking.  The 
migration  which  peopled  modern  Europe  was  a 
matter  of  centuries,  ours  of  decades ;  for  them  a 
river,  a  mountain  chain  was  a  barrier ;  in  our  case  a 
continent,  an  ocean  is  not  an  obstacle.  All  esti- 
mates of  numbers  for  that  movement  must  be  un- 
certain, but  over  against  the  figures  given  above 
put  this  statement  of  a  recent  historian  who,  while 
intimating  that  the  numbers  were  larger  earlier, 
says  regarding  the  fifth  century:  "The  highest 
estimate  for  the  whole  Burgundian  nation  is  80,000. 
The  Vandals  counted  no  more.  The  Visi-Goths, 
when  they  conquered  Spain,  hardly  exceeded 
30,000  warriors." ' 

As  the  tides  from  all  habitable  continents  and 
islands  lave  our  eastern  or  our  western  shores,  so 
Its        has  this  tide  of  humanity  come  from 

FIuctuatioDs.  well-nigh  every  nation  under  heaven. 
Like  the  tides  of  the  ocean,  too,  its  height  has 
varied  greatly  at  different  times,  determined  in  part 
by  economic  and  political  conditions  abroad,  but 
much  more  by  financial  and  industrial  conditions 

>  W.  M.  West,  Ancient  History,  p.  487. 


The  Great  Migration 


13 


here.  As  the  tide  finds  its  way  into  every  bay  and 
estuary  and  stream  of  the  coast,  but  is  measured  by 
scores  of  feet  in  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  and  at  other 
points  only  by  inches ;  so  immigration  has  in 
some  measure  reached  all  parts  of  our  country, 
but  it  has  been  by  no  means  evenly  distributed 
through  it. 

Unlike  the  water  of  the  tides,  however,  immigra- 
tion  has    recently   undergone  great  Recent 
changes  in  the  elements  of  which  it  is  Changes. 

composed. 

Earlier  immigration  was  chiefly  from  north- 
western Europe ;  recent  immigration  is  chiefly  from 
southern  and  southeastern  Europe. 

The  British  Islands,  Germany,  Scandanavia  and 
Canada  together  furnished  percentages  of  the  total 
immigration  for  decades  as  follows:  1 851-60, 
ninety-one  per  cent.;  1861-70,  ninety-one  per  cent.;  ^ 
1871-80,  eighty-two  per  cent.;  1881-90,  seventy- 
five  per  cent;  1891-1900,  forty-one  per  cent. 

In  contrast,  the  percentages  furnished  for  the 
same  decades  by  Austria-Hungary,  Italy,  Poland 
and  Russia  together  were:  1 851-60,  four-tenths 
percent.;  1 861-70,  one  per  cent.;  1 871-80,  six  per 
cent.;  1881-90,  seventeen  per  cent.;  1891-1900, 
fifty  per  cent.  Since  1900  the  ratio  has  risen  to 
over  seventy  per  cent.  Over  half  a  million  persons 
from  these  countries  arrived  during  the  last  year. 

The  earlier  immigration  was  mainly  English- 
speaking  and  Protestant ;  the  great  majority  of  the 


14       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


present  immigrants  do  not  speak  English  and  are, 
at  least  nominally,  Catholic. 

The  ideal  must  be  always  and  everywhere  to 
make  of  these  diverse  elements  one  new  nation, 
Assimilation  '^^^  ^1°^  only  in  territory  and  institu- 
the  Ideal.  tions,  but  one  also  in  speech  and 
in  spirit.  This  is  being  accomplished,  and  is  to  be 
accomplished,  not  by  enforced  legal  prohibition  of 
that  which  is  alien  and  forcible  imposition  of  that 
which  is  American,  after  the  manner  in  which 
Russia  has  been  "  Russifying  "  her  dominion  ;  but 
by  the  secret,  genial,  and  yet  mighty  influences  of 
our  national  life.  This  is  facilitated  by  the  fact  that 
immigrants  generally  come  hither,  not  in  organized 
communities,  but  as  families  and  individuals.  The 
lamented  Russian  admiral,  Makaroff,  could  not 
force  the  ice  in  the  Arctic  even  with  his  great  ice-boat, 
Yermak,  whose  power  he  thought  invincible ;  but 
the  iceberg  dislocated  in  the  Arctic  and  floating  into 
milder  climes,  quickly  dissolves  under  the  effect  of 
the  warmer  air  and  water  about  it.  The  silent 
forces  of  business,  social  and  political  life  constantly 
and  promptly  tend  to  Americanize  and  blend  those 
of  foreigh  birth  and  speech  with  the  body  of  the 
nation. 

The  greatest  single  agency  directly  at  work  to- 
day to  unify  the  diverse  nationalities  among  us  is 

The  Public  public  school.    Here  the  children 

School.  are  learning  in  our  common  language 
the  same  great  lessons.    While  there  need  be  no 


The  Great  Migration 


15 


prohibition  of  other  schools,  or  even  of  the  teach- 
ings of  other  tongues,  the  pubHc  school  should  be 
cherished  and  held  free  from  all  sectarian  or  racial 
control,  and  dedicated  to  its  one  great  work  of 
preparing,  in  the  English  tongue,  young  Americans 
for  American  citizenship. 

Speaking  only  from  the  standpoint  of  its  effect 
upon  men,  religion  is  a  prime  factor,  if  it  be  not  the 
prime  factor,  in  uniting  or  disrupting  Religion  a 
communities.  Certainly  most  of  those  P'*'"^  Factor, 
who  may  chance  to  read  this  will  agree  that  this 
nation  has  been,  and  ought  to  continue  to  be, 
pervasively  Christian  and  Protestant.  American 
Catholicism  itself  has  profited  largely  by  contact 
with  American  Protestantism.  To  continue  and 
to  develop  what  is  called  home  missions  is 
the  present  requisite  to  anything  like  national 
rehgious  unity,  for  in  an  increasing  degree  the 
immigration  which  is  coming  to  us  is  without 
the  essential  elements  of  evangelical  Christianity  as 
understood  and  practiced  hitherto  by  the  great  bulk 
of  American  Christians.  Ideally  and  ultimately  the 
churches  of  America,  like  the  schools  of  America, 
should  be  English-speaking  churches. 

But  analysis  is  often  the  condition  of  synthesis. 
One  must  separate  the  sticks  in  the  irregular, 
indiscriminate  pile  of  kindling  before  he  can  lay 
them  all  one  way,  side  by  side,  in  the  compact  and 
orderly  rank.  The  metallurgist  must  separate  his 
ores  before  he  can  combine  them  in  desirable  and 


l6       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


useful  alloys.  To  know  anything  about  the  actual 
character  of  recent  and  present  immigration  we 
must  distinguish  the  many  and  very  diverse  ele- 
ments of  which  it  is  composed.  To  deal  effectively 
with  these  several  elements  religiously,  we  must 
accommodate  ourselves  to  their  several  localities  and 
conditions. 

The  succeeding  chapters  are  devoted  to  furnish- 
ing information  to  these  ends. 


II 


THE  TEUTONIC  GROUP 

Since  our  English  tongue  belongs  to  the  Teutonic 
family  of  languages,  it  is  a  matter  of  congratulation 
that,  after  those  of  English  speech,  the  greatest 
total  immigration  heretofore  has  been  of  those 
using  the  tongues  next  of  kin.  Taken  together,  the 
latter  practically  equal  the  English-speaking  immi- 
grants from  over  the  sea  during  the  eighty-four 
years  of  record.  From  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 
the  total  is  7,061,710,  and  from  Germany,  Scandi- 
navia and  the  Netherlands,  6,846,437.  The  latter 
figures  do  not  include  those  of  German  speech  from 
Switzerland  or  Austria. 

Germans. 

The  total  immigration  from  Germany  alone  since 

1820  has  been  more  than  five  millions  (5,100,138). 

This  is  nearly  five  times  the  number 

r  1  1-  1         ,  •  Number. 

from  any  other  non-English-speakmg 

country. 

In  1900  there  were  in  the  United  States  2,666,990 
persons  who  had  been  born  in  Germany.  They  con- 
stituted one-fourth  of  all  the  foreign  born.  There 
were  over  three  and  a  half  millions  both  of  whose 
parents  were  born  in  Germany,  and  a  million  and  a 

17 


l8       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


half  more,  one  of  whose  parents  was  born  there.  Of 
these  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  million  (241,722)  over 
ten  years  of  age  could  not  speak  English.  They 
comprised  eighteen  per  cent,  of  the  non-English- 
speaking  foreigners.  To  get  the  total  of  those  who 
use  only  German  speech  it  would  be  necessary  to 
ascertain  in  addition  the  number  of  those  born  in 
this  country  of  native  parents,  who  do  not  speak 
English.  For  this  we  have  no  data.  All  born 
in  Germany  are  not  Germans,  but  nearly  all  are, 
and,  practically,  all  understand  German.  Fur- 
ther, many  Germans  come  from  Switzerland  and 
Russia,  and  about  one-tenth  of  recent  immigration 
from  Austria-Hungary  has  been  German.  More 

than   one-half  of  those  of  German 
Location.  ...         ,         ,  , 

parentage    (either    themselves  born 

abroad,  or  born  here  of  parents  born  abroad),  were 
found  in  the  North-Central  States  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley.  Taking  separate  states.  New  York  had 
over  a  million,  Illinois  over  three-quarters  of  a  mil- 
lion, Wisconsin,  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania  over  half  a 
million,  Iowa,  Michigan,  Missouri,  Minnesota  and 
New  Jersey  a  quarter  of  a  million  or  more.  Indi- 
ana, Nebraska,  California  and  Texas  from  one  to 
two  hundred  thousand. 

Immigration  from  Germany  reached  high-water 
mark  in  1882,  when  over  a  quarter  of  a  million 
Recent      came  in  a  single  year.  Fluctuating 

Immigration,  somewhat,  it  has  shown  a  general  de- 
cline down  to  1897,  when  only  17,000  came;  since 


The  Teutonic  Group  19 


then  it  has  been  slowly  increasing.  Over  40,000 
came  in  the  year  ending  June  30,  1903.  Of  these, 
one-eighth  were  Poles.  Eliminating  these  and 
members  of  other  races,  but  including  those  of  the 
German  race  from  Austria,  Russia  and  Switzerland 
and  elsewhere,  71,578  Germans  came  last  year. 
This  number  was  only  exceeded  by  the  Italians, 
who  were  three  times  as  many ;  and  by  the  Poles, 
Scandinavians  and  Hebrews,  who  exceeded  them  in 
the  order  named,  but  only  by  a  few  thousand  each. 
So  that,  although  it  has  lost  its  relative  place,  Ger- 
man immigration  is  still  a  large  and  important  ele- 
ment. The  destination  given  for  the  largest  num- 
bers of  immigrants  last  year  was  :  New  York,  15,- 
491;  Pennsylvania,  13,142;  Illinois,  6,447;  New 
Jersey,  3,985 ;  Wisconsin,  3,270 ;  North  Dakota, 
3,147;  Michigan,  2,114;  ^"d  over  1,000  each  to 
Missouri,  Nebraska,  Iowa,  Minnesota,  South  Dakota, 
California,  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut. 

Persons  of  German  parentage  were  found  in  1900 
in  large  numbers  in  cities  and  towns,  e.  g.,  New 
York,  658,861;  Chicago,  363,319;  q^^u  atj„„g 
Philadelphia,  159,223;  St.  Louis,  ""P"  ""s- 
154,735;  Milwaukee,  124,210  (proportionately  the 
most  German  city);  Cincinnati,  107,146.  But 
probably  a  larger  proportion  of  Germans  are  en- 
gaged in  agriculture  than  of  any  other  considerable 
element  of  our  population,  with  the  possible  excep- 
tion of  the  Scandinavians. 

In  recent  immigration,  after  the  English,  the 


20       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


Germans  furnish  much  the  largest  number  classed 
as  professional,  after  the  Hebrews  the  largest  pro- 
portion classed  as  skilled  labourers,  and  only  the 
Japanese  exceed  them  in  the  proportion  of  farmers 
and  farm  labourers  taken  together. 

In   recent  years   the  Germans  have  shown  a 
slightly  higher  percentage  (four  per  cent.)  of  il- 
literacy than  the  Scandinavians  ("one 
Character.  ,        ,    ,  ,      .  ) 

per  cent),  and  the  Bohemians  (two 

per  cent.),  but  it  is  safe  to  say  that  they  constitute 
as  a  whole  as  intelligent,  moral  and  thrifty  a  class 
of  immigrants  as  come  to  our  shores.  It  has  re- 
cently been  alleged  that  the  Germans  in  this  coun- 
try have  not  kept  pace  with  the  intellectual  develop- 
ment of  those  in  the  fatherland.  That  commercial- 
ism rather  than  intellectual  pursuits  has  engrossed 
their  attention. 

The  census  of  1900  in  Germany  gives  35,000,000 
Protestants  and  20,000,000  Catholics.  No  definite 
Religious  information  is  at  hand  as  to  the  pro- 
Attitude,  portion  these  two  classes  have  had  in 
immigration.  But  it  is  believed  that  the  earlier  im- 
migration was  predominantly  Protestant,  and  that 
the  Catholic  element  has  increased,  if  it  does  not 
predominate  now,  in  the  total  immigration  of  the 
German  race  from  all  countries. 

There  has  been  much  free  thinking  and  not  a 
little  materialism  and  infidelity  prevalent  among 
them.  But  if  we  have  had  what  one  of  their  own 
writers  calls  "  stomach  Germans,"  certainly  we  have 


The  Teutonic  Group 


21 


also  had  what  he  calls  "  soul  Germans."  If  the 
former  element  are  more  noisy  and  prominent,  the 
latter  are  more  numerous  and  more  influential. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  finds  a  large  element 
of  its  strength  in  this  country  among  the  Germans. 
They  are  somewhat  restive  under  the  work  of 
dominance  of  other  nationalities  in  Denominations, 
that  church.  The  Cathohc  Directory  for  1903 
names  as  German  Catholic  papers,  two  dailies, 
twenty-eight  weeklies,  fourteen  monthlies,  one  bi- 
monthly and  one  quarterly.  As  examples  of  the 
Catholic  work,  there  are  in  New  York  eleven  Ger- 
man Catholic  churches,  and  numerous  additional 
chapels,  with  which  more  than  fifty  clergy,  half  as 
many  lay  brothers  and  nearly  one  hundred  sisters 
of  various  orders  are  connected.  They  have  pa- 
rochial schools  with  hundreds  of  pupils,  and  various 
institutions  distinctively  German.  Chicago  has 
twenty  churches,  with  over  fifty  priests  and  over 
200  sisters,  besides  lay  brothers  and  teachers, 
while  in  that  diocese  outside  the  city  there  are  thir- 
teen German  churches. 

There  are  at  least  4,800  churches  connected  with 
the  various  Lutheran  bodies  in  this  country,  in 
which  the  German  language  is  used.  They  are 
served  by  over  3,500  ministers  and  report  nearly 
900,000  members. ' 

The  Reformed  Church  in  the  United  States  (Ger- 
man) has  two  German  Synods.    The  Mission  Board 

^Lutheran  Almanac,  1904,  pp.  80,  81. 


22       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


of  this  Church  maintains  a  missionary  at  Ellis  Island 
to  meet  and  assist  incoming  German  immigrants, 
particularly  those  who  are  commended  to  him  from 
abroad. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has  ten  German 
Conferences  in  this  country,  and  reported  in  them 
in  1903,  747  ministers  and  candidates,  62,648  mem- 
bers and  probationers,  and  864  church  buildings. 
Its  Mission  Board  appropriated  ^41,000  for  Ger- 
man work. 

There  are  in  affiliation  with  the  main  body  of 
English-speaking  Baptists  (1904),  264  German 
churches  with  24,323  members,  distributed  in 
twenty-seven  states  and  Canada.  The  Baptist 
Publication  and  Home  Missionary  Societies  carry 
on  German  work. 

The  German  Department  of  the  Congregational 
Home  Missionary  Society  reports  over  142  churches 
and  nineteen  missions  with  more  than  7,000  mem- 
bers. A  German  department  is  maintained  in  con- 
nection with  Wilton  College  and  Chicago  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  and  Church  and  Sunday-school 
papers  are  published  in  that  tongue. 

The  Presbyterian  Church  has  about  150  churches 
and  missions  with  11,000  members.  It  maintains 
two  German  theological  seminaries,  one  at  Bloom- 
field,  N.  J.,  and  one  at  Dubuque,  Iowa. 

The  Evangelical  Association,  the  United  Breth- 
ren and  other  denominations  also  have  German 
churches. 


The  Teutonic  Group 


23 


The  Scandinavians. 

Under  this  common  race  title  are  classed  those 
who  come  from  the  three  countries  of  Norway, 
Sweden  and  Denmark.  In  the  census  General 
of  1900,  they  aggregated  over  a  mil-  Characteristics, 
hon  and  constituted  more  than  one-tenth  of  our  for- 
eign-born population.  Their  general  character- 
istics are  the  same.  Fewer  (one  per  cent.)  are  illit- 
erate than  of  any  other  class  of  immigrants.  They 
are  largely  farmers.  As  a  rule  they  are  quiet,  in- 
dustrious and  thrifty.  They  assimilate  readily  with 
American  communities  and  become  active  and 
valuable  citizens.  In  1900  eighty-five  per  cent,  of 
the  Norwegians  in  this  country  and  sixty-five  per 
cent,  of  the  Danes  and  Swedes  were  found  in  the 
north  central  states  of  the  Mississippi  Valley. 
From  the  time  of  the  Reformation  the  Lutheran 
Church  has  been  the  established  church  in  all  three 
countries,  and  until  within  a  half  century  no  other 
denomination  was  allowed  by  law.  The  Scandina- 
vians have  accordingly  almost  all  been  trained  in  a 
churchly  and  exclusive  form  of  Lutheranism. 
They  have  very  largely  established  for  themselves 
churches  of  their  own  order.  Two  distinct  tongues 
are  spoken :  Swedish  by  the  Swedes  ;  and  Danish, 
with  difference  of  dialect,  by  the  Danes  and  Nor- 
wegians. In  consequence  the  latter  are  frequently 
combined  in  churches. 

Scandinavian  immigration  has  increased  rapidly 


24       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


in  recent  years.  From  1900  to  1903  over  175,000 
Increased     came  in.    New  York,  Massachusetts, 

Immigration.  California  and  the  far  Northwest  have 
gotten  larger  proportions  of  this  later  immigration 
than  heretofore. 

Of  the  154,284  natives  of  Denmark,  found  here 

in  1900,  17,102  were  in  Iowa,  16,299  in  Minnesota, 

„  16,171  in  Wisconsin,  15,686  in  Illinois, 

The  Danes.  •    >^  ,      ,        ^        -  , 

and  12,531  m  Nebraska.    Over  eight 

thousand  could  not  speak  English.    The  Danish 

EvangeHcal  Lutheran  Synod,  organized  in  1872, 

and   the   Danish  United  Synod  (1896)  together 

number  152  ministers,  263  churches  and  16,000 

members.    There  is  a  Danish  Theological  Seminary 

at  DesMoines,  la. 

Of  the  336,855  natives  of  Norway,  there  were 

104,895  in  Minnesota,  61,575  i^i  Wisconsin,  30,206 

in  North  Dakota,  29,979  in  Illinois 
Norwegians.  ■    ^  ^/  ^  , 

25,639  in  Iowa  and  19,788  in  South 

Dakota.  Of  these  40,876  could  not  speak  English. 
Five  independent  Norwegian  Lutheran  Synods  (the 
earliest  organized  in  1 846  and  the  largest  and  latest, 
but  one,  in  1890)  together  number  903  ministers, 
2,813  congregations  and  279,213  confirmed  mem- 
bers. There  are  three  Norwegian  Theological 
Seminaries  in  Minnesota,  connected  with  as  many 
separate  synods. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has  two  Nor- 
wegian-Danish conferences  with  ninety  ministers 


The  Teutonic  Group  25 


and  candidates,  5,694  members  and  probationers, 
and  121  church  buildings.^ 

The  Baptists  have  about  1 00  Danish  and  Norwe- 
gian churches  with  5,000  members. 

Of  the  573,040  natives  of  Sweden  there  were  in 
Minnesota  115,476,  in  Ilhnois  99,147,  in  Iowa  29,- 
875,  in  Michigan  26,956  and  in  Wis- 

Swedes. 

consin  26,196.  But  in  contrast  to  the 
Danes  and  Norwegians,  nearly  one-fourth  of  the 
Swedes  had  stopped  in  the  North  Atlantic  States, 
in  New  York  42,708,  in  Massachusetts  32,192,  in 
Pennsylvania  24,139  and  many  thousands  each  in 
Connecticut,  Rhode  Island  and  New  Jersey.  Of 
the  Swedes,  over  ten  years  of  age,  44,273  could  not 
speak  English. 

The  Swedish  Augustana  Lutheran  Synod,  organ- 
ized i860  and  embraced  in  the  General  Council,  has 
nine  conferences,  501  ministers,  956  congregations, 
and  132,000  members.  It  has  a  theological  semi- 
nary at  Rock  Island,  111. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has  four 
Swedish  Conferences  with  161  ministers  and  candi- 
dates, 15,322  members  and  probationers,  and  185 
church  buildings. 

The  Baptists  have  about  300  Swedish  churches 
with  21,000  members. 

The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  has  over  thirty 
Swedish  parishes  and  missions  in  charge  of 
twenty-two  Swedish  clergymen. 

'  Year  Book,  1904,  p.  41  sq. 


26       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


The  Congregational  Home  Missionary  Society 
has  a  Scandinavian  Department.  It  finds  affiliation 
Combined  with  the  "  Free  Mission  "  movement 
Missions.  Norway  and  Sweden,  which  has  es- 
tablished many  "  independent "  churches  there  in 
the  last  twenty-five  years.  The  society  has  work 
in  eleven  states,  and  reports  (1903)  no  churches 
with  7,000  members.  Carleton  College  and  Chicago 
Theological  Seminary  have  Scandinavian  Depart- 
ments. 

Only  two  Scandinavian  churches  with  a  combined 
membership  of  sixty-eight  are  reported  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Presbyterian  church. 

The  Protestant  character  of  the  Scandinavians  is 
indicated  by  the  fact  that  the  American  Bible 
Society  disposes,  on  an  average,  of  2,500  Bibles, 
nearly  6,000  Testaments  and  over  8,000  parts  annu- 
ally in  these  languages. 

The  Hollanders. 

The  census  of  1900  reports  103,098  persons  resi- 
dent in  the  United  States  at  that  time  who  had  been 
born  in  Holland.  They  have  settled  chiefly  in 
Michigan  (30,406),  Illinois  (21,916),  New  Jersey 
(10,261),  New  York  (9,414)  and  Wisconsin  (6,496). 

The  immigration  statistics  to  June  30,  1903,  show 
that  12,948  persons  speaking  Dutch  or  Flemish 
have  come  in  since  the  census  was  taken,  and  that 
they  have  gone  largely  to  the  states  named  above. 
These  people  come  with  a  good  amount  of  cash. 


The  Teutonic  Group  27 


About  one-sixth  are  skilled  workmen,  about  one-third 
are  labourers — chiefly  farm  labourers,  and  nearly 
one-half  are  women  and  children.  Only  seven  per 
cent,  of  those  coming  to  America  in  1903  were 
classed  as  illiterate. 

Holland  is  largely  Protestant,  and  the  immigrants 
have  established  many  churches  of  their  own.  The 
Reformed  Church  (Dutch)  of  America  has  found 
an  appropriate  field  for  mission  work  among  these 
people  and  is  actively  cultivating  it. 

The  American  Bible  Society  issues  each  year 
about  1500  copies  of  the  entire  Bible  in  the  Dutch 
language,  and  about  500  New  Testaments.  The 
Tract  Society  sends  colporteurs  among  these  people 
in  the  West. 

The  American  Newspaper  Annual  for  1900, 
gives  seventeen  "  Hollandish  "  papers  ;  of  these 
eight  are  in  Michigan.  Two  are  Protestant.  Two 
weekly  Catholic  papers  are  published  in  Wisconsin. 


Ill 


THE  FINNS  AND  MAGYARS 

Widely  separated  in  territory  and  present  affilia- 
tions, the  Finns  of  Russia  and  the  Magyars  of  Hun- 
Of  Asian  g^T  ^-^e  nearly  related  to  each  other 
Family.  ]jy  lineage  and  by  language.  They 
are  to  be  clearly  distinguished  in  these  particulars 
from  the  whole  Indo-European  family  to  which 
almost  all  the  other  races  of  Europe  belong.  They 
are  classed,  by  anthropologists,  in  the  Asian  family, 
of  which  the  Mongols  and  the  Tartars  (Turks)  are 
also  branches. 

But  by  reason  of  location  among  Indo-European 
races,  and   consequent  contact  and  mixture  with 

Of  Europeao   them,  both  Finns  and  Magj'ars  have 

Civilization,  been  assimilated  in  religion,  civiliza- 
tion, speech  and  customs  to  the  respective  peoples 
among  whom  they  have  dwelt.  In  these  respects, 
the  Finns  have  much  in  common  with  the  Swedes, 
who  long  ruled  their  country  and  in  part  inhabit  it. 
The  Magyars,  on  the  other  hand,  have  been  in  close 
touch  with  the  Germans  and  with  the  Slavic  races 
of  Hungary.  Because  of  these  connections,  the 
Finns  and  Magyars  are  accordingly  treated  here  be- 
tween the  chapters  relating  to  the  Teutons  and  the 
Slavs. 

88 


The  Finns  and  Magyars  29 


The  Finns. 

Finland  is  nominally  a  Grand  Duchy,  but,  in  fact, 
it  is  held  unconstitutionally  as  a  province  of  Russia. 
It  has  a  population  of  nearly  three  millions,  of 
which  more  than  four-fifths  are  Finns,  nearly  all  the 
rest  are  Swedes. 

In  religious  faith,  almost  the  entire  people  are 
classed  as  Lutherans.  Russia  since  1899  has  been 
pursuing  a  vigorous  and  apparently  tactless  and 
brutal  attempt  to  "  Russify  "  Finland.  This  policy 
is  shown  in  enforcing  the  use  of  the  Russian  lan- 
guage in  the  schools  and  official  life,  and  in  the  sub- 
ordination of  the  legislative  Diet.  Great  antagonism 
has  been  aroused,  which  has  led  to  harsher 
measures. 

In  1900,  there  were  63,440  natives  of  Finland  in 
the  United  States.  Of  these  nearly  20,000  were 
found  in  Michigan,  io,ooo  in  Minnesota.  From 
2,000  to  3,000  were  found  in  each  of  the  north- 
western States  of  Montana,  Washington  and  Ore- 
gon. In  the  East,  Massachusetts  had  5,000,  New 
York,  4,000,  and  Ohio  nearly  3,000. 

From  1901-03,  inclusive,  42,731  more  came, 
almost  half  of  them  during  the  last  year.  That 
half  as  many  women  as  men  come  indicates  family 
life  and  permanent  settlement.  They  bring  in  a 
large  average  of  cash.  Almost  all  can  read  and 
write. 

Only  a  few  are  classed  as  professional  or  skilled 


30       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


labourers.  A  large  proportion  enter  domestic  serv- 
ice. The  majority  are  classed  simply  as  labourers. 
The  great  body  of  recent  immigrants  go  to  the 
States  indicated  above. 

The  Independent  Suomi  (Finnish)  Lutheran 
Synod,  organized  in  1859,  reports  seventeen  min- 
isters, and  forty-eight  congregations,  with  nearly 
19,000  confirmed  members. 

The  Baptists  have  a  recently  founded  Finnish 
Union  of  a  few  churches. 

The  Methodists  appropriated  ^3,700  for  Finnish 
work  in  1904  to  be  expended  mainly  about  Detroit, 
but  also  in  New  England,  Minnesota  and  California. 


M.AGVARS  OR  HUXG.ARIAXS. 

Mag>'ar  is  the  racial  name  of  the  people  with 
whom  we  have  to  do  under  the  name  of  Hungarians, 
and  is  used  to  distinguish  them  from 
History.  Germans  and  Slavs  of  Hungary. 

The  Magyars  formerly  dwelt  on  the  steppes  of 
Southern  Russia.  Pushed  over  the  Carpathian 
Mountains  in  the  ninth  centur}%  they  drove  out 
their  Slavic  predecessors  and  took  possession  of  the 
Danubian  plains.  At  fii^t  a  terror  to  Europe,  they 
became  later  a  buttress  against  the  Ottoman  Turks. 
They  were  converted  to  Christianit)',  in  their  new 
home,  through  the  agency  of  the  German  branch 
of  the  Roman  Cathohc  Church.  Christianit)'  be- 
came the  state  religion  about  the  year  1000,  and  the 


The  Finns  and  Magyars  31 


church  was  richly  endowed  with  wealth  and  privi- 
leges. The  Reformation  was  at  first  bitterly  op- 
posed, but  civil  dissentions,  for  a  time,  destroyed 
the  physical  power  of  the  Roman  Church.  In  con- 
sequence, both  the  Lutheran  and  Reformed  types 
of  Protestantism  gained  large  followings,  and  were 
accorded  liberty.  Protestants  were  deprived  later 
of  their  privileges,  but  after  a  long  struggle,  were 
again  placed  on  an  equal  footing  with  Roman 
Catholics  in  1791. 

The  Magyars  number  over  eight  millions  and 
comprise  a  little  more  than  one-half  the  population 
of  the  geographical  division  known  as  gfj^jg^j^g 
Hungary.     They  are  the  dominant 
class  and  sharply  resent  the  Germanizing  tendencies 
of  the  Austrian  government. 

Statistics  of  1902,  give  the  Roman  Catholic 
population  of  Hungary  as  about  ten  millions.  The 
number  holding  the  Helvetic  (Reformed)  confession 
was  about  two  and  a  half  millions,  while  the  ad- 
herents of  the  Augsburg  (Lutheran)  confession 
were  a  miUion  and  a  quarter. 

The  census  of  1900  reports  145,815  persons  in 
the  United  States  who  were  born  in  Hungary.  Of 
these  more  than  half  were  probably  of  Magyar 
stock.  From  1900  to  June  30,  1903,  64,045  Mag- 
yar immigrants  are  reported,  so  that  there  are  150,- 
000  or  more  now  in  the  country.  The  great  ma- 
jority have  come  within  ten  years. 

They  have  a  fair  degree  of  education.    Nine  out 


32       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


of  ten  of  those  arriving  in  1903,  could  read  or 

write  in  some  language.    Almost  all, 
Characteristics.    .  .  „     ,.  , 

of  course,  were  ignorant  of  Lnglish. 

They  are  reputed,  in  general,  to  be  honest ;  and, 
when  compared  with  the  Slav  (with  whom  they  are 
commonly  confused),  more  intelligent  and  less  in- 
dustrious,— "  more  agile  in  limb  and  temper." 
Many  are  addicted  to  drink  and  are  quarrelsome. 
They  frequently  exhibit  strong  racial  antagonism 
to  the  Slavs.  The  Protestants  are  morally  and  in- 
tellectually superior  to  their  Catholic  compatriots. 

Pennsylvania,  New  York,  New  Jersey  and  Ohio 
(about  Cleveland)  receive  the  great  bulk  of  Magyar 
immigrants.  Much  smaller  numbers  go  to  Con- 
necticut, Illinois  (Chicago)  and  Indiana.  Six  Hun- 
garian papers  are  published  in  America,  of  which 
three  are  in  Ohio. 

Although  at  home  chiefly  agriculturists,  here 
they  are  largely  employed  in  mills  and  factories. 

The  Catholic  directory  names  two  weekly  Magyar 
papers  in  Cleveland  as  Roman  Catholic,  and  a  few 
churches   and   missions  distinctively 

Religious* 

Hungarian  or  Magyar,  e.  g.,  in  New 
York  City,  in  Perth  Amboy,  N.  J.,  in  the  coal 
region  and  McKeesport,  Pa.,  and  in  Cleveland,  Ohio. 
It  is  said  that  Catholic  Hungarians  readily  lapse 
from  the  church.  It  is  difficult  to  estimate  the  pro- 
portion of  those  now  here  who  have  been  trained 
in  the  Protestant  churches  of  the  mother  country ; 
but  there  are  many  of  them  in  certain  localities, 


The  Finns  and  Magyars  33 


who  gladly  welcome  religious  services  in  their  own 
tongue  and  contribute  generously  to  church  sup- 
port. The  principal  Protestant  work  carried  on 
among  them  has  been  by  the  Reformed  Church 
(German).  It  began  this  in  1890  and  now  has  fif- 
teen or  more  regularly  organized  missions  equipped 
with  ministers  brought  over  from  Hungary. 

Presbyterians  have  ten  congregations  located  in 
northern  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania  coal  regions, 
western  New  York  and  Ohio,  with  an  enrollment 
of  nearly  two  thousand  communicants. 

The  Bible  Society  has  issued  about  two  hundred 
Hungarian  Bibles  and  the  same  number  of  Testa- 
ments each  year  recently ;  there  has  been  a  slow 
but  steady  increase  in  the  numbers. 

The  Tract  Society  publishes  and  imports  Hun- 
garian books  and  tracts. 


IV 


THE  SLAVIC  GROUP 

In  the  anthracite  coal  region  of  Pennsylvania 
and   to   large  degree  elsewhere  also,   the  term 

Racial       "  ^^^^ "       popularly  appUed  to  all 
the  non-English-speaking  peoples  of 
southern  and  eastern  Europe.    But  for  our  purpose 
such  usage  is  not  only  loose,  but  confusing  and  mis- 
leading. 

Strictly  speaking,  the  Slavic  constitutes  one  of 
the  eight  great  branches  into  which  the  Indo-Euro- 
pean or  Indo-Germanic  family  of  languages  is 
divided.  The  Slavs  number  about  i25,ocx),ooo,  over 
one-twelfth  of  the  total  population  of  our  globe. 
The  Slavs  have  been  concentrated  until  recently  in 
the  eastern  and  larger  part  of  Europe.  They  make 
up  the  bulk  of  Russia  (the  one  great  Slav  power), 
and  of  the  Balkan  States,  and  they  form  nearly 
half  the  population  of  Austria-Hungary.  They  are 
divided  geographically  into  two  great  groups  by  the 
Magyars  and  Roumanians  who  lie  between  them. 
The  northern  group  consists  of  the  Russians, 
Czechs,  Poles  and  Slovaks.  The  southern  group 
of  Slovenes,  Croatians,  Servians,  Dalmatians,  Her- 
zegovinians,  Bosnians,  Montenegrins,  Bulgarians. 

34 


The  Slavic  Group 


35 


The  various  Slavic  languages  and  dialects  are 
closely  related  but  they  present  such  differences 
also  as  to  preclude  intercouse  between 
those  speaking  different  Slavic 
tongues.  Two  distinct  alphabets  are  used  by  dif- 
ferent members  of  the  Slavic  family.  In  general, 
the  Cyrillian  alphabet,  introduced  in  the  ninth  cen- 
tury and  consisting  in  its  various  forms  of  from 
thirty-five  to  forty-eight  characters,  is  used  where 
the  Greek  Church  prevails,  e.  g.,  Russia,  Bulgaria, 
Servia.  The  Roman  alphabet  of  western  Europe 
is  employed  generally  where  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  is  dommant.  The  language  of  the  govern- 
ing race  however  affords  a  partial  means  of  inter- 
communication between  those  of  diverse  speech 
coming  from  the  same  nation,  as  Russian  or  German. 

The  Slavs  were  converted  to  Christianity  chiefly 
by  missionaries  from  Thessalonica,  led  by  the 
brothers  Cyril  and  Methodius  in  the  ninth  century. 
They  reduced  the  language  to  writing  and  trans- 
lated the  Scripture  into  it.  At  first  this  Slavic 
speech  was  used  and  allowed  in  church  services,  but 
later,  under  German  influence,  Rome  forbade  this 
in  the  churches  recognizing  her  sway.  But  this  old 
Slavic  now  known  as  Old  Church  Slavic  and  prac- 
tically as  unintelligible  to  those  speaking  modern 
Slavic  tongues  as  Latin  itself,  remains  the  church 
language  of  the  Slavic  Greek  churches. 

In  physical  strength  and  endurance  the  Slav  is 
the  equal  of  any.    Thus  far  at  least,  he  seems 


Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


slower  intellectually.  He  has  been  described  as  a 
few  centuries  behind  the  rest  of  the  civilized  world. 
But  he  is  eager,  brave,  daring,  persistent,  and  knows 
how  to  make  good  use  of  his  knowledge  when  he 
gets  it. 

Slavic  immigration  is  practically  a  new  phenom- 
enon.   A   few  Slavs,   especially  Bohemians  and 

Poles,  were  here  before  1880,  but  they 
Immigration.        ,   ,  ,  ,  ,        ,        ,  ' 

probably  constituted  less  than  three 

per  cent,  of  the  foreign  born.  The  immigration 
from  Austria-Hungary  rose  almost  steadily  year  by 
year  from  less  than  6,000  in  1879  to  nearly  77,000 
in  1892,  then  it  dropped  back  for  five  years;  but 
since  then  has  increased  again  more  rapidly  than 
ever,  reaching  over  206,000  in  1903.  The  immi- 
gration from  Russia  exhibits  almost  a  parallel,  ex- 
cept that  the  figures  are  somewhat  smaller.  These 
were  not  all  Slavs,  Hebrews  in  particular  were  a 
large  element ;  but,  as  will  appear  in  detail,  the 
Slavs  were  represented  by  large  and  varied  groups. 

It  is  particularly  to  the  anthracite  coal  regions  of 
Pennsylvania,  the  coke  districts  and  to  the  great 
manufacturing  centres  that  the  recent 
Slav  immigration  has  gone.  The  Slav, 
in  the  loose  sense  mentioned  at  the  beginning,  has 
practically  supplanted  the  English-speaking  races  in 
a  great  part  of  the  anthracite  mining  region,  and  is 
forming  great  communities  in  and  about  our  chief 
cities. 

In  general  their  manner  of  life  upon  arrival  here 


The  Slavic  Group  37 


is  in  sharp  contrast  to  that  of  American  workmen. 

They  are  content  to  hve  in  small, 

,    ,     ...  ^      .  ,     ,  ,     .,,  ,  Characteristics. 

crowded,  lU-furnished    and  ill-kept 

houses.  They  subsist  upon  cheap  and  meagre  fare. 
Two-thirds  of  them  are  men,  the  majority  young 
men.  Frequently  they  are  worked  in  gangs  and 
herded  in  boarding  camps.  They  are  generally 
clannish  and  suspicious  and  these  characteristics  are 
manifest  not  only  to  those  of  other  races  but  some- 
times even  more  sharply  towards  their  Slavic  kindred 
of  other  tongues.  For  example,  the  Catholics  find 
it  necessary  to  have  separate  churches  for  the  differ- 
ent nationalities  in  order  to  keep  peace.  Their  so- 
cial festivities  are  rude  and  noisy,  and  usually  in- 
volve drunkenness  and  quarrelling.  They  have  little 
regard  for  the  American  Sunday,  but  use  it,  and 
numerous  religious  festivals  besides,  for  social  rec- 
reation or  dissipation  after  church  duties  are  over. 
Both  men  and  women  drink  in  public,  and  the 
saloon-keeper  is  quite  commonly  the  social  leader 
and  not  infrequently  the  religious  leader  also. 
They  are  a  prolific  race  at  home  and  they  have  thus 
far  proved  so  in  America. 

Although  in  Europe  the  majority  of  Slavs  are 
connected  with  the  Greek  Church,  of  those  in  this 
country  the  great  majority  have  been 
Roman  Catholic.  Both  Lutheran  ^  '2'<">s. 
and  Reformed  types  of  Protestantism  have  had  some 
foothold  among  Slavs,  but  at  present  are  relatively 
weak  everywhere,  and  among  many  of  the  Slavs  at 


Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


home  are  practically  unknown.  Like  the  Athe- 
nians of  old  the  Slav  is  "  very  religious  "  even  to  the 
extent  of  superstition.  He  is  inclined  to  divorce 
morality  and  religion. 

As  will  appear  in  detail,  there  are  regular  Roman 
Catholic,  many  Greek  Rite  Roman  Cathohc,  and 
Othodox  Greek  churches  among  them.  A  few 
Protestant  churches  of  European  types  have  been 
established  by  the  Slavs  themselves.  Various  Prot- 
estant bodies  in  the  United  States  are  at  work,  no- 
tably the  Congregational,  which  has  a  Slavic  depart- 
ment under  in  its  Home  Missionary  Board,  of  which 
Rev.  H.  A.  Schauffler,  D.  D.,  is  superintendent.  It 
has  a  Slavic  department  in  connection  with  Oberlin 
College  and  the  Bethlehem  Training  School  at  Cleve- 
land, Ohio,  for  fitting  both  male  and  female  workers. 
Wooster  University  has  just  undertaken  similar  work 
in  connection  with  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

The  Bohemians. 

These  people  who  call  themselves  Czechs,  are  a 
principal  branch  of  the  Slav  family,  and  form  one  of 
the  large  constituents  in  the  Austro-Hungarian  em- 
pire. In  their  own  country  they  are  chiefly  agri- 
culturists, although  manufactures  are  developing. 
They  numbered  there  in  1901,  6,318,697. 

In  1900,  there  were  in  the  United  States  325,379 

persons  of  Bohemian  parentage,  of  whom  156,991 

persons  were  born  in  Bohemia.  Of 
Numbers.      ,     ^  •  ,1  /        ^   x       u  ^ 

the  former  a  sixth  (  54,769)  could  not 


The  Slavic  Group 


39 


speak  English.  The  immigrants  from  Bohemia  and 
Moravia,  since  1900,  aggregate  18,947.  Adding 
these,  and  omitting  those  born  in  America,  we  have 
a  total  of  at  least  175,000  persons  who  understand 
the  Czech  language,  and  nearly  75,000  of  whom  do 
not  understand  English. 

Three-fourths  of  the  Bohemians  in  the  United 
States  are  found  in  the  North-Central  States  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley.  Chicago  is  their  great  centre — 
"  the  Prague  of  America."  It  had  over  36,362  per- 
sons of  Bohemian  birth  in  1900,  and  about  one- 
third  of  the  immigrants  since  have  gone  thither. 
Ohio  had  15,131,  almost  all  of  whom  were  in  and 
about  Cleveland.  New  York  City  had  over  15,000, 
largely  employed  in  cigar  making.  About  4,000  are 
in  and  about  Pittsburg.  There  were  16,138  in  Ne- 
braska, 14,145  in  Wisconsin,  10,809  i'^  Iowa  and 
9,204  in  Texas  ;  these  were  largely  engaged  in  agri- 
culture. 

The  Bohemians  are  among  the  most  intelligent  of 
our  immigrants.    Of  those  coming  in  1903,  only 

two  per  cent,  were  classed  as  illiterates. 
„,  r    ^    4.  A  Description. 

Ihere  are  forty-two  papers  m  Amer- 
ica printed  in  the  Czech  language.  To  an  unusual 
degree  the  Bohemians  come  with  their  families. 
More  than  two-fifths  of  the  recent  immigrants  are 
females.  They  are  thrifty.  They  try  to  have  little 
homes  of  their  own  and  do  not  keep  boarders. 

The  Bohemians  were  originally  converted  by  the 
Germans  and  passed  under  the  See  of  Rome.  In 


4©       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


Bohemia  ninety-six  per  cent,  of  the  population  is 
reckoned  as  Roman  Cathohc,  and  only  a  little  more 
than  two  per  cent,  as  Protestant.  But  there  has 
been  sharp  conflict  over  the  policy  of  the  Austrian 
Government  to  Germanize  the  Bohemians.  This 
attempt  has  had  the  support  of  the  Church,  with 
the  result  that  the  national  feeling  has  been  arraigned 
against  the  Church. 

In  this  country  a  large  proportion  of  the  Bo- 
hemians are  openly  infidels ;  it  is  said  that  more 
than  two-thirds  of  those  in  Chicago  have  forsaken 
the  Cathohc  Church.  A  Bohemian  physician  is  re- 
sponsible for  the  statement  that  "  of  the  forty-two 
Bohemian  papers  in  the  United  States,  seven  are  re- 
hgious  (five  Catholic  and  two  Protestant),  and  of 
the  thirty-five  secular  papers,  one  is  favourable  to 
Christianity,  one  is  neutral,  and  the  remaining  thirty- 
three  are  all  propagators  of  infidelity ;  heaping  con- 
tempt on  Christianity  with  a  feverish  intensity  that 
is  truly  fanatical." 

It  is  claimed  by  themselves  that  there  are  300 
societies  in  Chicago  that  teach  infidelity.  They 
hold  Sunday-schools.  They  have  a  catechism 
which  begins  :  "  What  duty  do  we  owe  to  God  ?  " 
Answer,  "  Inasmuch  as  there  is  no  God,  I  owe  Him 
no  duty." 

The  saloon  has  become  very  largely  the  centre  of 
Bohemian  life  in  America.  The  lodge  has  taken 
the  place  of  the  church.  Suicide  is  frequent 
among  the  Bohemians  in  America,  and  is  justified, 


The  Slavic  Group  41 


if  not  encouraged,  by  their  secret  infidel  societies. 
The  element  gathered  in  the  cities  is  easily  inflamed, 
bitter  and  relentless.  The  farming  population  of 
Minnesota  and  Nebraska  is  more  accessible  to  re- 
ligious work. 

While  violent  attacks  are  made  on  all  forms  of  the 
Christian  religion  by  some,  the  chief  opposition  is 
to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  John  Huss  is  a 
national  hero  on  account  of  his  opposition  to  mak- 
ing the  university  German.  Protestants  have  a 
chance  for  a  hearing. 

The  Catholic  Directory  (1903)  names  two  daily, 
one  semi-weekly  and  three  weekly  CathoHc  Bohe- 
mian papers,  and  Bohemian  churches 

,  !    ,  .      ,     Religious  Work, 

m  the  pnncipai  centres :  e.  g.,  m  the 

Diocese  of  Cleveland  four,  of  Chicago  and  Dubuque 
three  each,  of  Baltimore  two,  of  New  York  and 
Pittsburg  one  each. 

The  Baptists  have  little  work  among  Bohemians. 
The  Methodists  appropriated  ^13,300  for  Bohemian 
and  Hungarian  work  in  1904,  mainly  for  Baltimore 
and  the  regions  of  Pittsburg,  Cleveland,  Chicago  and 
upper  Iowa.  The  Congregationalists,  through  their 
Slavic  Department  have  missions  in  Cleveland, 
St.  Louis,  and  at  a  few  points  in  Iowa,  Nebraska 
and  elsewhere. 

Rev.  Vaclav  Vanek,  pastor  of  the  Bohemian  and 
Moravian  Presbyterian  Church  of  Baltimore  said 
recently :  "  During  the  last  twenty  years  there 
have  been  established  eighty-nine  Bohemian  and 


42       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


Protestant  churches,  of  which  fifty-nine  are  Presb)'- 
terian."  The  report  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions 
(1904)  places  the  number  of  Bohemian  churches 
and  missions  in  connection  with  the  Assembly  at 
twenty-eight,  with  a  membership  of  1,733. 

Over  500  Bibles  and  1,500  Testaments  and  about 
3,000  gospels  are  issued  annually  by  the  Bible  soci- 
ety. The  Tract  Society  has  recently  had  colporteurs 
among  the  Bohemians  about  Pittsburg  and  Chicago 
and  in  Texas. 

Slovak. 

The  Slovaks  are  Slavs,  close  akin  to  the  Bohe- 
mians and  the  Moravians.    Their  home  is  in  north- 
ern Hungary  and  southern  Moravia. 
In  Europe.     ^,  ,  , 

1  hey  number  about  2,000,000.  Most 

of  their  literature  is  in  the  Czech  (  or  Bohemian ) 
language.  This  language  is  generally  understood 
among  them,  although  there  have  been  some 
recent  attempts  to  develop  a  literature  in  their 
native  tongue.    Kossuth  was  a  Slovak. 

About  two-thirds  of  the  Slovaks  are  Roman 
Catholics  and  about  one-third  are  adherents  of  the 
Augsburg  (Lutheran)  Confession. 

Over  100,000  have  come  to  America  in  the  last 

three  years.    One-fourth  of  these  could  not  read 

nor  write.    It  is  estimated  that  there 
Numbers.  .     ,  .     ,  „  ^, 

are  250,000  m  the  United  States.  Of 

these,  150,000  are  in  Pennsylvania.    The  majority 

are  in  western  Pennsylvania.   But  they  are  the  most 


The  Slavic  Group  43 


numerous  of  the  Slavic  races  in  the  anthracite  re- 
gions also.  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Ohio  and  II- 
hnois  are  the  other  principal  destinations  given. 

More  than  two-thirds  of  those  who  come  are 
men.    They  live  usually  in  very  crowded  quarters, 

one  family  having  sometimes  from  fif-  .  , 

^  ,  Characteristics, 

teen   to  twenty  boarders,  and  under 

conditions  far  from  cleanly  or  sanitary.  They  are 
given  to  drink  upon  festive  occasions  and  are  then 
quarrelsome.  They  are  extremely  economical  and 
are,  as  a  class,  unusually  honest  in  the  payment  of 
their  debts.  They  are  generally  free  from  theft  and 
sexual  immorality.  They  commonly  work  in  gangs 
under  a  "  boss  "  of  their  own  nationality  and  are 
quiet,  persistent  and  industrious.  They  are  swayed 
in  masses  by  leaders  in  labour  movements,  and  are 
purchasable  at  the  polls.  They  send  much  money 
back  to  the  home-land  and,  to  a  great  extent,  look 
forward  to  returning  thither. 

In  religion,  the  majority  are  of  the  Greek  Church, 
while  some  are  of  the  Greek  rite  under  the  Roman 
See.  Between  these  two  parties,  and 
between  the  Slovaks  m  general  and 
the  Roman  Catholic  Poles,  and  between  the  Mag- 
yars and  the  Slovaks,  there  is  much  religious  con- 
flict. It  is  said  that  the  Slovak  is  not  generally  de- 
sired by  the  churches  of  the  other  nationalities.  In 
some  places  they  have  organized  Slovak  Lutheran 
congregations.  Of  these,  a  recent  list  names  over 
seventy  meetings ;  many  are  in  small  communities 


44       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


and  are  evidently  small  in  numbers.  Of  these,  fifty 
are  in  Pennsylvania,  a  part  in  the  coal  region  and  a 
part  in  western  Pennsylvania.  Six  arc  in  Ohio, 
five  in  New  York,  four  in  New  Jersey,  two  each  in 
Illinois,  Minnesota  and  Montana,  and  one  each  in 
Connecticut  and  Missouri. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  fifteen  churches 
in  the  anthracite  region,  and  some  work  in  Chicago, 
New  York,  and  the  neighbourhood  of  Pittsburg. 

The  Congregational  Mission  Board  has  Slovak 
missions  in  Allegheny  and  in  towns  about  Pittsburg. 
The  Presbyterian  Church  engages  in  the  same  work 
in  the  anthracite  regions  of  Pennsylvania  and  in  the 
western  part  of  the  state.  The  American  Tract 
Society  colporteurs  distribute  some  hterature,  but 
report  indifference.  The  American  Bible  Society 
has  issued  about  250  Testaments  in  three  years. 

Poles. 

There  were  in  the  United  States  in  1900,  668,514 
persons  whose  parents  were  born  in  Poland.  Of 
these  nearly  four  hundred  thousand 
Numbers.  (389,510)  were  themselves  born  in 
Poland.  Nearly  a  quarter  of  a  million  (236,130)  of 
the  latter  had  come  to  the  United  States  within  ten 
years.  In  the  three  immigration  years  since,  nearly 
two  hundred  thousand  more  (194,580)  have  come 
in. 

Of  those  in  the  United  States  in  1900,  147,773 
could  not  speak  English  ;  adding  the  recent  immi- 


The  Slavic  Group  45 


grants,  we  have  here  about  a  third  of  a  million  Poles 
that  do  not  understand  English.  Earlier  immigrants 
came  mainly  and  in  about  equal  numbers,  from 
German  and  Russian  Poland.  Recent  immigrants 
come  chiefly  from  Austrian  and  Russian  Poland,  and 
again  in  about  equal  numbers  from  each. 

The  higher  classes  of  Poland  were  touched  by  the 
Pre-Reformation  movement  of  Huss  at  Prague, 
where  they  were  generally  educated.  Religious 
Reformation  ideas  did  not  gain  so  great  History, 
currency  as  in  Bohemia,  but  both  Calvin  and  Luther 
were  interested  in  the  progress  of  the  Reformation 
in  Poland.  A  Jesuit  authority  complained  that'two 
thousand  Romanist  churches  had  become  Protes- 
tant. A  Union  Synod  was  formed  and  a  consensus 
of  doctrine  adopted.  Poland  is  described  as  the 
most  tolerant  country  of  Europe  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  It  became  an  asylum  for  the  persecuted 
Protestants  of  other  lands,  notably  the  Bohemian 
brethren.  Later  on,  under  the  influence  of  Protes- 
tantism, literature  and  education  were  stimulated. 
But  under  succeeding  Swedish  and  Saxon  dynasties, 
and  through  Jesuit  instrumentality,  religious  liberty 
and  national  independence  were  lost,  and  Poland 
disappeared  from  the  map  of  Europe.^ 

As  a  race,  the  Poles  boast  such  names  as  Coper- 
nicus, the  astronomer,  Koskiusko,  the  patriot  war- 
rior, Chopin,  the  composer. 

'  See  interesting  sketch  "  Protestantism  in  Poland,"  by  Rev.  C. 
E.  Edwards,  IVestminster  Fress,  Philadelpliia,  1902. 


46       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


The  distribution  of  those  of  PoHsh  parentage  in 
the  United  States  in  1900  was:  Illinois  123,887 
(Chicago  107,669,  congregated  mainly 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  stock 
yards),  Pennsylvania  118,203  (mainly  in  the  anthra- 
cite coal  region  and  about  Pittsburg,  although  Phil- 
adelphia had  over  1 1,000),  New  York  1 15,048  (New 
York  City  50,000  and  Buffalo  35,000),  Wisconsin 
70,000  (Milwaukee  36,000),  Michigan  59,075  (De- 
troit 26,869),  Ohio  31,1 36  (Cleveland  1 5 ,000,  Toledo 
9,000).  There  were  between  twenty  and  thirty 
thousand  each  in  Massachusetts,  Minnesota  and 
New  Jersey,  and  over  ten  thousand  each  in  Con- 
necticut and  Indiana,  while  in  smaller  numbers  they 
were  widely  distributed.  Recent  immigrants  go 
generally  to  the  places  named  above,  but  in  larger 
proportions  to  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  New  Jer- 
sey and  the  New  England  States. 

The  Poles  who  come  to  this  country  are  gener- 
ally poor.  One-third  of  them  can  neither  read  nor 
write.  They  are  naturally  clannish, 
'  and  this  feeling  has  been  intensified  by 
their  national  experiences  and  religious  training. 
They  clash  with  the  Lithuanians  in  particular. 
They  are  passionate  lovers  of  liberty,  and  there  is 
more  organized  rebellion  against  the  Roman  hier- 
archy among  Polish  Catholics  than  any  other. 
They  desire  control  of  their  church  properties  and 
freedom  in  the  choice  of  priests,  similar  to  that  en- 
joyed by  the  Ruthenians  of  the  Greek  rite.    The  in- 


The  Slavic  Group  47 


temperance  of  the  Poles,  both  abroad  and  here,  has 
been  widely  noted.  There  is  a  large  element,  par- 
ticularly among  the  German  Poles,  that  repudiates 
all  religion  and  propagates  socialism  and  atheism. 
These  characteristics,  coupled  with  a  superstitious 
dread  awakened  by  misrepresentation  of  Protestant- 
ism current  among  them,  make  access  to  them  ex- 
tremely difficult.  Polish  priests  about  Pittsburg  are 
said  to  boast  of  the  number  of  Bibles  distributed  by 
Protestants,  which  they  gather  from  the  people  and 
burn. 

More  than  thirty  Polish  papers  are  published  in 
the  United  States.  The  Catholic  directory  claims 
eight  dailies  and  weekhes,  besides  other  periodicals 
as  of  that  faith. 

Dr.  H.  K.  Carroll  ^  gives  "  Polish  Catholic  "  dis- 
tinct from  Roman  Catholic,  thirty-three  priests, 

forty-three    churches,   42,859  com- 

.      Ti  u  u  .  Churches, 

municants.     these  probably  represent 

the  revolt  alluded  to  above,  but  would  be  included 

as  Roman  Catholic  by  the  latter. 

There  are  nineteen  Polish  Catholic  churches  in 
the  anthracite  region  of  Pennsylvania,  nine  in  Chi- 
cago, seven  in  Milwaukee,  four  in  New  York,  and 
some  wherever  Poles  are  to  be  found  in  numbers. 

Among  Protestants,  the  Congregational  Church 
is  the  one  working  the  most  definitely  for  the 
Poles.  They  have  churches  of  this  nationality  in 
Cleveland  and  in  Detroit,  and  missions  in  Toledo, 

•  T^e  Christian  Advocate,  January,  1904. 


48       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


Ohio,  Bay  City,  Mich.,  about  Pittsburg  and  in  New 
England.  They  employ  for  this  purpose  principally 
Bohemian  women  who  have  been  trained  at  the 
Bethlehem  school,  Cleveland,  and  who  have  studied 
Polish  for  this  purpose. 

The  Poles  are  reached  in  some  degree  also  by  the 
colportage  work  of  the  Baptists,  Presbyterians,  the 
American  Tract  Society  and  other  agencies ;  but 
there  is  comparatively  little  specific  work  done  for 
them  and  the  number  of  Protestant  Poles,  thus  far, 
is  small. 

The  Bible  Society  issues  from  two  to  three  hun- 
dred Bibles,  and  ten  times  as  many  Testaments  and 
fifty  times  as  many  portions  of  the  latter,  annually 
in  Pohsh. 

Lithuanians. 

The  home  of  the  Lithuanians  is  on  the  south- 
eastern shore  of  the  Baltic  in  a  region  abounding  in 

forests  and  swamps.    They  are,  with 
Classification.    ,    .        .  ,  ,  ,  ,  . 

their  neighbours  and  near  kinsmen 

the  Letts,  one  of  the  oldest  races  of  Europe. 
They  are  clearly  distinguished  from  the  southern 
Slavs,  being  generally  tall  and  fair,  resembhng  the 
Swede  in  complexion.  But  the  language  is  classed, 
in  the  scheme  here  followed,  with  the  Lettish  and 
old  Prussian  as  the  Baltic  branch  of  the  Balto-Slavic 
group,  and  their  political  connections  are  with  the 
Pole  and  the  Russian. 

They   did   not    accept   Christianity   until  the 


The  Slavic  Group  49 


fifteenth  century,  when  they  came  under  the  sway 
of  the  Roman  Church.  Lithuania  ^^^^^^Qfy 
was  an  independent  kingdom  in  earlier 
times,  but  was  first  affihated  and  then  united  with 
Poland  under  a  single  sovereign.  The  Poles  were 
the  dominant  element,  but  the  Lithuanians  claim  to 
have  furnished  the  greatest  individuals  produced  in 
the  united  kingdom.  The  sharp  antagonism 
between  the  Lithuanians  and  Poles  is  still  manifest 
by  the  immigrants  to  this  country.  At  the  parti- 
tion of  Poland,  Lithuania  was  incorporated  in 
Russia.  The  Lithuanians  complain  bitterly  of  the 
recent  enforcement  of"  Russification  "  among  them. 
Teaching  or  printing  in  the  Lithuanian  tongue  has 
been  forbidden,  membership  in  the  Greek  Church 
has  been  made  a  condition  for  office  holding, 
and  thus  the  great  body  of  their  own  people  has 
been  disqualified.  Their  educational  foundations 
and  collections  have  been  confiscated  or  perverted. 
The  Russian  officials  set  over  them  and  backed  by 
Cossack  troops  have  governed  harshly. 

In  Europe  the  Lithuanians  number  about  two 
miUions  and  the  Letts  nearly  a  million  and  a  half. 
The  latter  are  largely  Protestants. 
The  census  of  igoo  does  not  indicate 
how  many  of  the  race  were  then  in  the  United 
States,  but  in  the  three  years  since,  34,876  have 
come  in.  Much  the  greatest  body  of  them  is 
found  in  the  anthracite  coal  regions,  where 
Shenandoah,  Pennsylvania,  is  their  chief  centre. 


50       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


They  form  a  considerable  part  of  the  mining  popula- 
tion. Others  of  this  race  have  gone  to  New  York, 
lUinois,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut  and  New- 
Jersey. 

About  one  half  are  illiterate.  The  men  generally 
speak  both  Russian  and  Lithuanian,  the  women 
only  the  latter.  While  grouped  loosely  with 
Slavic  tongues  as  stated  above,  the  Lithuanian  is 
quite  distinct  from  the  other  languages  of  that  group 
here  noted.  Six  papers  are  published  in  it  in 
the  United  States.  "  Their  standard  of  living  is 
as  low  as  any,  while  the  brutal  fights  which  occur 
among  them  confirm  the  opinion  that  they  are  as 
savage  as  any  class  in  the  coal  fields." ' 

The   Catholic    Church   has   twelve  Lithuanian 

churches  in  the  coal  regions.    It  carries  on  work 

for  them  at  three  points  in  Chicago, 
Religious.  ^  ^ 

and  one  each  in  Cleveland,  Baltimore 

and  Boston ;  and  possibly  elsewhere ;  but  outside 

the  coal  regions,  the  priests  are  few  and  the  work 

little  developed. 

No  Protestant  missions  distinctively  for  Lithua- 
nians or  Letts  have  been  noted. 

The  Bible  Society  in  the  last  four  years  issued 
267  Lithuanian  Testaments,  ninety-four  Lettish 
Bibles  and  142  Testaments. 

Russians. 

Of  the  419,484  immigrants  arriving  here  from 

'  Roberts,  The  Anthracite  Coal  Communities,  p.  33. 


The  Slavic  Group  51 


Russia  and  Finland  in  the  four  years  1900- 1903 
inclusive,  160,206  were  Hebrews,  1 17,-  Race 
382  were  Poles,  55,111  were  Finns,  Distinctions. 
43,497  were  Lithuanians,  30,018  were  Germans, 
6,182  were  Scandinavians  and  are  included  under 
these  race  titles  in  this  book.  Only  7,029  were  of 
the  dominant  Russian  race,  which  numbers  in  the 
Great  Russian  or  Muscovite  branch  about  sixty 
millions.  They  may  all  be  considered  as  adherents 
of  the  Russian  Greek  Church. 

Of  those  coming  to  America,  from  one  third  to 
one  fourth  go  to  Pennsylvania.    New  York  is  the 
destination  of  the  next  largest  num- 
ber, and  Massachusetts,  Connecticut, 
Illinois  (Chicago)  Cahfornia  and,  in  the  last  year, 
North  Dakota  have  gotten  a  few  hundred  each. 

In  proportion  to  their  total,  an  unusual  number  is 
classed  as  professional,  of  whom,  in  the  last  immi- 
gration year,  ten  were  clergy  and  twenty-three 
actors.  Engineers  are  the  most  numerous  of  this 
class.  As  skilled  labourers,  tailors  and  shoemakers 
lead. 

Russo-Greek  churches  have  long  existed  in 
Alaska  and  are  being  established  in  cities  of  the 
United  States.  A  bishop  known  as  Russo=Qreeli 
the  Bishop  of  Alaska  and  the  Aleu-  Church, 
tian  Islands  now  resides  in  San  Francisco,  and  there 
are  in  all  more  than  fifty  Greek  churches,  forty 
priests  and  45,000  adherents  of  various  races  in  the 
whole  territory   of  the  United  States,  including 


52       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


Alaska.  A  periodical  in  the  interest  of  the  church 
is  published  in  New  York. 

The  American  Bible  Society  has  issued  in  the 
last  two  years  about  500  copies  of  the  whole  Bible 
in  Russian  together  with  a  large  num- 

Rellglous. 

ber  of  Testaments  and  a  still  greater 
number  of  parts.  The  American  Tract  Society 
colporteurs  have  come  into  contact  with  the  Rus- 
sians, particularly  in  Chicago,  and  report  from  them 
great  illiteracy  and  intemperance.  No  other  distinc- 
tive Protestant  work  among  them  has  been  noted. 

RUTHENIANS  OR  RuSSNIAKS. 

These  people  are  of  the  eastern  Slav  family  and 

come  to  us  from  the  Austro-Hungarian  province  of 

Galicia   where   they   number  about 
Description.     ,  ,      1   ,r     n-  x  • 

three  and  a  half  miluons.    In  Russia 

they  number  about  eighteen  millions.    They  call 

themselves    "  Little    Russians."    Their  physical 

characteristics  indicate  a  mixed  race.    They  are 

darker  and  smaller  than  the  typical  Slav.  They 

belong  to   the  Roman  Catholic  Church  (Greek 

Rite).    At  home  they  are  generally  poor,  backward 

in  civilization,  and  oppressed.    They  are  in  conflict 

with  the  Polish  element  that  forms  the  ruling  class. 

The  Cossacks,  their  neighbours  to  the  southwest,  also 

speak  the  Ruthenian  or  "  Little  Russian  "  tongue,  a 

dialect  that  differs  considerably  from  the  Russian. 

Many   Galician   Ruthenians   understand  and  use 

Hungarian. 


The  Slavic  Group  53 


More  than  twenty-five  thousand  (arrivals  26,496) 
have  come  here  in  the  four  years  ending  June  30, 
1903.  Two  thirds  are  men.  They  Numbers  and 
are  almost  all  unskilled  labourers,  and  Location, 
at  least  one  half  cannot  read  nor  write  in  any 
language.  More  than  one-half  give  Pennsylvania 
as  their  destination.  A  recent  estimate  puts  the 
number  about  Pittsburg  at  8,000,  in  all  western 
Pennsylvania  12,000,  in  the  State  90,000,  and  in 
the  United  States  160,000.^  The  last  two  estimates 
are  probably  too  large.  After  Pennsylvania,  but  in 
much  smaller  numbers,  they  go  to  New  York,  New 
Jersey,  Ohio,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut  and 
Illinois,  in  the  order  named. 

Both  abroad  and  here,  they  are  represented  as 

accessible  to  missionary  agencies ;  but  the  crowded 

condition  in  which  they  live  here  and 
11  If  ,     •    1,-^    ,  Religious, 

the  large  illiteracy,  make  it  difificult  to 

work  among  them.  Like  the  Poles,  they  are  self- 
assertive  and  independent.  There  are  eighteen 
"  United  Greek  "  or  Greek  Rite  Catholic  Churches 
in  the  coal  regions,  largely  for  the  Ruthenians,  and 
ten  or  more  churches  and  missions  of  the  same  de- 
scription in  and  about  Pittsburg,  Pa.  The  British 
and  Foreign  Bible  Society  has  just  issued  the  first 
edition  of  the  complete  Scriptures  ever  published  in 
their  language.  Neither  the  American  Bible 
Society  nor  the  American  Tract  Society  yet  includes 

1  McEwen,  IVori  Among  Foreign  Speaking  People  in  Western 
Pennsylvania,  p.  6. 


54       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


any  publications  in  Ruthenian  in  their  issues.  Nor 
is  there  known  to  be  any  distinctive  Protestant 
work  for  them  in  their  own  tongue.  They  are  in- 
cluded in  the  general  colportage  work  about  Pitts- 
burg and  elsewhere. 

Croatians  and  Slovenians. 

The    Croatians    come    from    the  Kingdom  of 

Croatia  and  Slavonia,  which  is  incorporated  in  the 

Austro-Hungarian  Empire.  At  home 
Croatiaas.      ,  , 

the  people  are  generally  very  poor,  are 

engaged  in  agriculture,  and  have  little  education ; 

sixty-six  per  cent,  are  illiterate.    In  religion  they 

are  Roman  Catholic.    Their  language  differs  little 

from  that  of  their  neighbours  the  Servians,  but  is 

written  in  the  Roman  characters,  while  the  Serbs, 

having  been  converts  of  the  Greek  church  use  the 

Cyrillian  alphabet.    In  their  native  land  there  is 

sharp  conflict  between  the  two  growing  out  of  their 

religious  differences. 

The  Slovenians  come  from  the  provinces  of  Car- 

niola,  Carinthia  and  Styria,  lying  to  the  northwest 

of  Croatia,  and  also  included  in  Aus- 

Slovenes* 

tria-Hungary.    In  characteristics  and 

religion  they  are  similar  to  the  Croatians. 

The  census  of  1900  does  not  give  separately  the 

number  from  these  nationalities  then  in  our  land. 

But  in  the  five  years  ending  June  30, 
Numbers.  1      1    j  ^1  j 

1903,  over  a  hundred  thousand  came 

in.    Of  these  more  than  one-third  could  not  read  nor 


The  Slavic  Group  55 


write  and  it  is  fair  to  presume  scarcely  any  spoke 
English.  Seven  out  of  eight  were  men.  Only  one 
in  twenty  was  classed  as  a  skilled  labourer,  chiefly 
mariners  or  miners.  Pennsylvania  was  the  destina- 
tion of  the  majority.  Dr.  McEwen  of  Pittsburg 
estimates  that  there  are  26,000  in  western  Pennsyl- 
vania, 38,000  in  the  State  and  175,000  in  the  United 
States.  Ohio,  West  Virginia,  Illinois  and  Missouri 
were  the  other  principal  destinations  given  by  re- 
cent immigrants. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Directory  gives  Croatian  and 
Slovenian  missions  in  Chicago  and  about  Pittsburg 
but  with  few  priests  and  little  evi- 
dence  of  organization.    A  weekly 
Roman  Catholic  paper  is  published  at  Joliet,  111. 

Protestant  work  so  far  as  known  is  confined  to 
colportage,  in  which  the  distribution  of  Scriptures 
furnished  in  the  vernacular  by  the  American  Bible 
Society  holds  the  principal  place. 

Dalmatians,  Bosnians  and  Herzegovinians. 

These  occupy  contiguous  states  in  the  extreme 
south  of  Austria-Hungary,  east  of  the  Adriatic. 

Dalmatia  is  a  maritime  province  with  about  half 

a  million  inhabitants,  five-sixths  of  whom  are  of  the 

native  race  which  is  supposed  to  rep- 

,  , ,  ...  T11    •  Dalmatians, 

resent  the  ancient  Ulynans.    i  hey  are 

closely  allied  to  the  Croatians  and  Servians.  Italian 

is  largely  spoken  in  the  ports,  which  are  important 

centres  for  the  Austrian  sea  trade.    There  is  much 


56       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


political  unrest  and  conditions  of  life  are  hard. 
More  than  four-fifths  are  classed  as  Roman  Catho- 
lics and  almost  all  the  rest  are  counted  as  belonging 
to  the  Greek  Church. 

Until  1878  Bosnia  was  the  northwestern  province 
of  Turkey.    In    the  readjustments  of  that  time 

Bostiaas  aad  Bosnia  was  given  nominal  independ- 
Herzegovinians.  gnce ;  but  practically,  with  Herzego- 
vinia  on  the  south,  was  given  to  Austria,  which 
now  governs  them.  The  population  numbers  about 
a  million  and  a  half,  who  chiefly  carry  on  agricul- 
ture in  primitive  fashion.  They  speak  the  Servian 
language  and  the  majority  of  the  Christians  are  of 
the  Greek  persuasion. 

Immigration  from  these  regions  is  just  be- 
ginning. In  1900  the  figures  were  675,  in 
1901,  732,  in  1902,  1,004,  in  1903,  1,736.  The 
proportion  of  men  to  women  was  as  ten 
to  one.  About  one-fourth  could  not  read  nor 
write.  One-sixth  were  skilled  labourers,  chiefly 
mariners.  New  York  was  the  destination  of  about 
one-half,  next  in  order  of  numbers  were  California, 
Pennsylvania  and  West  Virginia. 

The  Bulgarians,  Servians  and  Montenegrins. 

This  grouping  is  that  of  the  immigration  statistics. 

Montenegro,  one  of  the  little  kingdoms  of  Europe  lies 

east  of  the  Adriatic  and  southeast  of 
Montenegrins.  ^  ,  ,    .        ,,      ,  ,  . 

Ualmatia.    its  population  all  told  is 

less  than  a  quarter  of  a  million.    The  country  itself 


The  Slavic  Group 


57 


is  almost  undeveloped,  but  the  men  are  among  the 
finest  in  physique  in  Europe.  They  have  little 
education  but  are  bold,  courtly  and  moral.  They 
are  closely  related  to  the  Serbs  and  in  religion  are 
members  of  the  Orthodox  Greek  Church  and  under 
the  Holy  Synod  of  Russia. 

Servia  is  now  an  independent  kingdom  lying  east 
of  Dalmatia  and  Montenegro  and  between  Austria 
and  Turkey.  It  has  a  population  of  ^  ^  . 
two  and  a  half  millions.  P'our-fifths  of 
the  people  can  neither  read  nor  write.  They  are 
closely  akin  in  blood  and  speech  to  the  Croatians, 
but  differ  from  the  latter  in  religion,  being  members 
of  the  Greek  Church,  and  in  consequence  use  the 
Cyrillic  alphabet.  The  country  has  recently  been 
in  turmoil  on  account  of  the  assassination  of  the 
King. 

The  Bulgarian   race,  a  conglomerate,  numbers 

about  four  millions,  of  whom  a  little  more  than  half 

live  in  the  principality  of  Bulgaria, 

^    f  c      •       t/  1  •  t,  Bulgarians, 

just  east  of  bervia.    It  was  Turkish 

atrocities  among  these  people  which  brought  on 

the  Russo-Turkish  war  of  1877,  and  in  consequence 

of  that  war  Bulgaria  became  autonomous,  with  an 

independent  prince,  but  tributary  still  to  Turkey. 

Russian  influence  is  active  and  the  country  is  now 

in  a  disturbed  state  in  consequence  of  the  revolt 

against  Turkey   agitating   Macedonia,  and  with 

which  the  Bulgarians  sympathize.    Although  in 

race  allied  to  Finn  and  Turk,  their  language  is 


58       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


Slavic.  It  is  spoken  over  about  two-thirds  of  Eu- 
ropean Turkey.  The  Orthodox  Greek  is  the 
national  Church,  but  since  1870  it  has  been  ecclesi- 
astically independent  of  the  other  branches  of  that 
Church. 

The  stream  from  these  countries  has  just  begun 
to  flow.  In  1900,  204  came,  in  1901,  611,  in  1902, 
Combined  1.29 1,  1903.  6,479.  Of  the  last 
Numbers.  number  given  only  164  were  women. 
About  one-half  could  neither  read  nor  write  and 
almost  all  were  classed  as  common  labourers. 
Nearly  one-half  were  bound  for  Pennsylvania, 
nearly  a  thousand  for  Illinois,  about  six  hundred 
each  to  New  York  and  Ohio  and  from  one  to  two 
hundred  to  Cahfornia,  Michigan  and  Missouri. 

No  specific  religious  work  for  any  of  these 
nationalities  has  been  noted  in  America.  The 
American  Board  (Congregationalist,)  and  the  Meth- 
odists,) are  at  work  in  Bulgaria.  The  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society  prints  and  circulates  the 
Scriptures  in  both  Servian  and  Bulgarian. 


V 


THE  JEWS 

It  is  estimated  that  there  are  from  ten  to  eleven 
million  Jews  in  the  world.  Of  these  at  least  one- 
half  are  in  Russia  and  one-fifth  in  jdeir 
Austria-Hungary.  From  these  two  Number, 
countries,  but  chiefly  from  Russia,  the  present  im- 
migration of  about  7S,ooo  a  year  comes.  It  has 
been  stimulated  by  governmental  oppression  and 
popular  persecution. 

It  is  also  estimated  that  there  are  more  than  a 
million  Jews  in  the  United  States  at  present.  Of 
these  more  than  one-half  are  in  and  about  New 
York  City.  It  is  said  that  one  person  out  of  every 
five  on  Manhattan  Island  to-day  is  a  Jew  and  that 
the  total  in  Greater  New  York  is  over  6oo,ocx), 
about  one  in  every  six  of  the  population.  Five 
thousand  Russian  Jews  arrived  at  the  port  of  Phila- 
delphia recently  in  a  single  week,  and  the  Jews  in 
Pennsylvania  number  more  than  100,000.  Massa- 
chusetts has  60,000,  Illinois  75,000,  Ohio  and  Mis- 
souri each  50,000. 

The  Jews  in  this  country  are  generally  in  some 
sort  of  mercantile  business.    There  are  some  skilled 
labourers,  and  schools  for  training  the 
children  in  handicrafts  have  been  es-  Occupation. 

59 


6o       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


tablished  in  the  cities,  especially  in  New  York. 
Efforts  have  been  made  to  start  agricultural  colo- 
nies, but  with  little  success.  The  notable  exception 
to  the  latter  statement  is  found  at  Woodbine,  N.  J. ; 
where,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Baron  Hirsh  fund, 
a  promising  movement  has  been  inaugurated  and 
carried  forward. 

Over  one-fourth  of  the  recent  Jewish  immigrants 
are  illiterate,  but  the  younger  element  are  eager  and 

quick  to  learn.    This  is  sadly  illus- 
Characteristics.  ^    ,  ,  ,      ^,  ^      •    j    •  xt 

trated  by  the  recent  suicide  in  JNew 

York  of  a  little  Jewish  boy,  when  he  found  the 

public  school  too  full  to  admit  him. 

As  with  other  foreigners,  local  associations  in 
the  old  world  bind  the  Jews  together  in  groups  in 
the  new.  These  groups  set  up  synagogues  and 
schools  for  religious  instruction,  as  they  are  able,  in 
any  accessible  apartments. 

The  older  people  cling  to  the  old  traditions  and 
customs.  The  younger  element  is  less  loyal.  In 
religion  the  drift  is  strong  towards  infidelity.  A 
recent  remark  of  a  Jew  well  describes  the  situation : 
"  My  father  prays  every  day,  I  pray  once  a  week, 
my  son  never  prays." 

"  Yiddish  "  (from  the  German,  Judisch  "  Jewish  ") 
in  somewhat  varied  dialects  is  the  general  colloquial 
language  among  Jews  from  all  parts  of  Europe. 
Books,  periodicals,  and  more  than  twenty  newspa- 
pers are  now  published  in  it  in  the  United  States. 

There  has  been  little  organized  work  on  the  part 


The  Jews 


61 


of  any  of  the  denominations  for  evangelizing  the 

Jews   in   this  country.    There  is  a 

■  ,  ^1  1  Missions. 
Protestant  Lpiscopal  "  Church  So- 
ciety for  Promoting  Christianity  Among  the  Jews." 
Independent  missions  have  been  established  in 
various  places.  Trouble  has  been  experienced  in 
securing  reliable  workers,  and  in  the  management 
of  financial  affairs.  The  New  York  City  Mission- 
ary Society  has  a  promising  work  in  connection  with 
its  De  Witt  Memorial  Church  on  Rivington  Street. 

Individuals  of  the  race  are  incorporated  from 
time  to  time  in  our  churches.  These  facts  have 
demonstrated  the  opportunity  and  afford  encourage- 
ment for  a  more  systematic  and  wider  prosecution 
of  the  work. 

The  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  issues 
New  Testaments  in  Judaeo-German  or  Western 
Yiddish  for  the  Jews  of  Western  Europe  and  in 
Judseo-Polish  or  Eastern  Yiddish  for  the  Jews  of 
Poland,  Roumania,  Galicia  and  South  Russia. 
These  may  be  obtained  through  the  American 
Bible  Society,  which  also  prints  Hebrew  New  Testa- 
ments and  in  the  past  four  years  has  issued  650 
copies  of  the  latter. 

The  American  Tract  Society  issues  a  few  Ger- 
man-Hebrew and  Hebrew  tracts. 


VI 


THE  ROMANCE  TONGUES 

Under  this  title  are  included  all  those  languages 
which  are  derived  from  the  Latin.  With  a  single  ex- 
ception,the  home-lands  of  those  who  use  these  tongues 
are  in  southwestern  Europe,  the  territory  once  cov- 
ered by  the  Roman  Empire.  The  Romance  tongues 
make  up  another  of  the  eight  great  branches  into 
which  the  Indo-European  family  of  languages  is 
divided.  As,  broadly  speaking,  Protestantism  pre- 
dominates among  those  using  the  Teutonic  lan- 
guages, and  the  Greek  Church  among  those  using 
the  Slavic,  so  the  Roman  Church  prevails  where 
the  Romance  tongues  are  spoken. 

The  first  to  colonize  America  in  the  persons  of 
the  Spaniards,  after  centuries  of  little  movement 
thitherwards,  the  Latin  nationalities  have  sud- 
denly, in  the  past  decade,  become  one  of  the  chief 
sources  of  immigration  to  the  United  States.  They 
are  coming  largely,  but  by  no  means  exclusively, 
from  Italy,  the  land  of  Columbus  himself. 

The  Roumanians. 

The  Roumanian  is  the  isolated  member  of  the 
Romance  tongues.    By  residence  and  general  char- 

62 


The  Romance  Tongues  63 


acteristics  the  Roumanians  might  be  classed  with 
the  Slavs.  Roumanian  immigration  presents  the 
double  paradox  that  the  people  who  come  from 
Roumania  are  not  Roumanians,  and  that  the  Rou- 
manians who  do  come,  are  from  other  countries. 

The  modern  kingdom  of  Roumania  (1881)  is 
made  up  of  the  former  Turkish  provinces  of  VVala- 
chia  and  Moldavia  and  was  established  as  a  result 
of  the  Russo-Turkish  War  and  the  Treaty  of  Berlin 
(1878).  It  touches  Russia,  Austria-Hungary, 
Servia,  Bulgaria  and  the  Black  Sea.  It  has  about 
six  million  inhabitants,  of  whom  nine-tenths  are 
Roumanians,  and  something  over  three  hundred 
thousand  are  Jews,  significantly  described  in  the 
census  of  that  kingdom  as  "  aliens  not  under  the 
protection  of  a  foreign  power."  The  Treaty  of  ^ 
Berlin  provided  for  religious  liberty  and  equal  op- 
portunity for  men  of  every  religious  faith.  Violent 
opposition  has  developed  against  extending  such 
privileges  to  the  Jews  and  this  has  recently  been 
manifest  in  active  persecution.  In  consequence, 
tens  of  thousands  of  Jews  have  been  fleeing  from 
Roumania  to  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States. 
In  consequence  Secretary  of  State  Hay  was  re- 
cently led  to  send  a  protest  to  the  signatory  powers 
of  the  Berlin  Treaty  on  the  subject.  It  is  these  Rou- 
manian Jews,  and  not  native  Roumanians  to  any  ex- 
tent, who  have  made  up  the  aggregate  of  31,726, 
who  have  come  hither  from  Roumania  in  the  past 
five  years.    These  have  the  same  characteristics  as 


64       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


the  other  Hebrews  coming  from  eastern  Europe. 
(See  Jews,  p.  59.) 

But  only  about  one-half  the  Roumanian  race 
hve  in  the  country  which  now  bears  their  name. 
They  are  found  in  large  number  in  Transylvania, 
East  Hungary,  in  Balkowina,  Russia,  and  scattered 
through  the  Balkan  States.  It  is  mainly  in  Austria- 
Hungary  that  the  stream  of  their  immigration  has 
taken  its  rise.  Small  as  yet,  it  has  been  growing 
rapidly.  In  the  year  ending  June  30,  1900,  398 
came;  in  1901,  761;  in  1902,  2,033;  ^9^3, 
4,740. 

The  Roumanians  claim  to  derive  their  lineage,  as 
they  derive  their  name  and  their  speech  from  the 
Romans  of  classic  time.  They  assert  that  they  are 
descendants  of  the  colonists  whom  Trajan  sent  into 
the  region  early  in  the  second  century.  Modern 
scholars  find  a  large  admixture  of  other  blood  and 
other  speech.  But  the  structure  of  the  language  is 
essentially  that  of  the  Romance  tongues. 

The  Roumanians  were  converted  to  Christianity 
through  the  Eastern  Church,  and  the  alphabet  of 
Cyril  was  at  first  used,  but  this  has  been  supplanted 
by  the  Roman  character  in  the  past  century.  In 
its  history  the  race  has  exhibited  vigorous  but  sav- 
age features.  Of  those  arriving  here  in  1 903,  over 
one-fifth  were  illiterate.  The  Greek  Church  is  es- 
tablished by  law  in  Roumania,  and,  excepting  the 
Jews,  almost  the  whole  nation  is  counted  within  its 
pale.    Protestant  adherents  are  estimated  at  15,000. 


The  Romance  Tongues  65 


The  great  majority  of  the  Roumanians  go  to 
Ohio  (1,477      1903)  ^"d  Pennsylvania  (1,261). 

The  American  Tract  Society  imports  some  tracts 
in  Roumanian,  and  the  American  Bible  Society  issues 
separate  gospels  in  this  tongue  of  which  280  copies 
were  distributed  in  1903.  The  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society  prints  the  whole  Bible  in  Roumanian. 

No  distinctive  work  for  Roumanians  in  this  coun- 
try on  the  part  of  Protestants  is  known. 

French. 

The  immigration  from  France  has  always  been 

relatively  small.    The  largest  number  in  single  years 

was  about  20,000  in  1847  and  again  in 

.  r  ,  ,      ,     ,   Prom  France. 

1 85 1.    A  few  more  than  one  hundred 

thousand  (104,534)  natives  of  France  were  in  the 
United  States  in  1900,  located  principally  in  New 
York  (20,000),  Cahfornia  (12,000),  Pennsylvania 
(10,000),  lUinois  (7,000),  Louisiana  (6,500)  and  in 
New  Jersey  and  Ohio  (about  5,600  respectively). 
Of  those  of  French  parentage  a  small  part  (9,016) 
could  not  speak  English. 

In  the  past  three  years,  however,  over  1 5,000  have 
come  from  France.  These  are  generally  well-to-do, 
as  immigrants  go.  More  than  one-third  of  them 
show  over  thirty  dollars  apiece  and  they  had,  as  a 
whole,  ^671,735.  From  a  third  to  a  half  gave  New 
York  as  their  destination,  about  one-fifth  Pennsyl- 
vania and  one-sixth  California.  An  unusual  pro- 
portion (389  in  1903)  is  classed  as  professional 


66       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


(actors,  clergy,  teachers,  engineers,  etc.)  ;  and  more 

than  one-fourth  (1,975)  as  skilled  labourers,  out  of  a 

total  immigration  in  that  year  of  7,166. 

But   many  people   of  French   extraction  and 

language  are  found  in  the  United  States,  who  have 

come  in  from  Canada.    There  were 
From  Canada.         ,     .       ,       ,     ,    ,  ,  . 

nearly  four  hundred  thousand  (395,- 

297)  Canadian-born  French  in  the  United  States  in 
1900,  constituting  nearly  one-quarter  of  the  foreign 
born  population.  Of  these,  nearly  one-fourth  (89,- 
351)  over  ten  years  of  age  could  not  speak  English. 
The  immigration  statistics  do  not  show  the  number 
coming  since  1900,  but  it  has  been  considerable. 
Three-fourths  of  these  are  found  in  the  Northeast- 
ern and  Middle  States,  and  almost  all  the  rest  in  the 
North-Central  States  of  the  Mississippi  Valley. 
They  are  generally  employed  in  mills  and  factories. 

In  Canada  the  French  are  counted  as  almost  en- 
tirely Catholic.  The  total  Catholic  population  of 
Canada  is  about  two  and  a-half  millions,  of  which 
something  over  one-half  is  found  in  the  French 
provinces,  so  that  nearlyone-fourth  of  the  total  French 
Canadians  seem  to  have  come  to  the  United  States. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Directory  gives,  as  Roman 
Catholic  papers,  the  names  of  five  dailies,  thirteen 
Churches  weeklies  and  one  quarterly,  published 
and  Missions,  French.  All  except  three  of  these 
are  issued  in  New  England,  the  greater  number 
being  in  Massachusetts.  The  same  Directory  re- 
ports six  churches  in  the  diocese  of  Boston,  with 


The  Romance  Tongues  67 


twenty-seven  priests  and  double  that  number  of  sis- 
ters. The  largest  work  is  that  at  Lowell,  Mass. 
There  are  four  French  churches  in  the  diocese  of 
Chicago  and  one  in  that  of  New  York. 

The  Baptist  Home  Missionary  Society  has  sixteen 
missionaries,  including  a  general  superintendent, 
among  the  French  Canadians  of  New  England,  and 
estimates  that  there  are  3,500  of  French  Canadian 
stock  in  the  churches  of  that  denomination  in  those 
states. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Mission  Board  makes 
an  appropriation  of  nearly  ^3,000  for  French  work 
in  New  England. 

The  Congregational  Home  Missionary  Society 
reports  eight  French  missionaries.  There  is  a 
French-American  college  at  Springfield,  Mass.,  and 
a  French-English  paper  is  published.  Some  local 
churches  and  organizations  also  carry  on  work  for 
the  French  in  New  England. 

The  Presbyterians  report  six  French  churches 
with  384  members. 

Another  element  of  French  extraction  is  found  in 

Louisiana,  where,  in  addition  to  8,585  foreign-born 

over  ten  years  of  age  who  do  not  speak 

,  ■      ,        ,  In  Louisiana. 

English,  "  there  is  also  a  large  native 

white  population  of  native  parentage,  but  of  French 

extraction,  and  a  considerable  negro  element  of 

Creole  descent  in  Louisiana  in  1900,  who  do  not 

speak  English."  ^ 

'^Twelfth  Census,  Vol.  2,  p.  125. 


68       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


One  French  CathoHc  Church  is  noted  in  the 
diocese  of  New  Orleans.  The  Methodist  Episcopal 
Board  appropriates  5350  for  "  Gulf"  missions  to  the 
French. 

Spanish. 

There  were  in  the  United  States  in  1900,  7,284 
persons  born  in  Spain.  In  the  three  years  since, 
6,453  have  come  into  United  States  territory  in- 
cluding Porto  Rico.  More  than  one-fourth  of  these 
are  found  in  New  York.  Florida  stands  next  in 
point  of  numbers,  then  California  and  Louisiana. 
An  unusual  proportion  of  recent  immigrants  (thirty- 
two  in  1903)  belong  to  the  clergy.  Actors,  phy- 
sicians, artists,  lawyers  and  engineers  swell  the  list 
of  professional  men.  Mariners  constitute  the  largest 
class  among  the  skilled  labourers.  Professional  and 
skilled  classes  constitute  a  third  of  recent  Spanish 
immigrants. 

The  Catholics  have  a  Spanish-American  Church 
in  New  York. 

The  Congregational  Home  Missionary  Society 
reports  eight  Spanish  missionaries.  (See  for  Span- 
ish-Americans or  Mexicans,  page  87.) 

Portuguese. 
The  number  of  persons  of  Portuguese  birth  or 
parentage  is  not  specified  in  the  published  report  of 
the   census  of  1900.    Since  that  date,  however, 
nearly  eighteen  thousand  (17,918)  have  come  into 


The  Romance  Tongues  69 


our  country.  Of  these  about  two-thirds  ( 1 1,768) 
came  to  Massachusetts,  and  about  2,000  each  to 
Rhode  Island  and  Cahfornia.  The  proportion  of 
women  to  men  (more  than  seven  to  ten)  is  unusually- 
high  and  indicates  that  families  come. 

Of  the  more  than  five  million  souls  in  Portugal,  a 
recent  authority  states  that  not  more  than  five 
hundred  are  Protestant.  About  four-fifths  of  the 
population  of  Portugal  can  neither  read  nor  write, 
and  the  percentage  of  iUiteracy  among  the  immi- 
grants (seventy-three  per  cent.)  is  far  the  highest  for 
any  nationality.  A  few  are  skilled  labourers,  among 
whom  mariners  predominate,  but  the  vast  majority 
are  unskilled  labourers  or  unclassed. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  a  few  priests 
among  them  in  Boston  and  vicinity  (four  in  1903). 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Mission  Board  in  1903 
appropriated  ^1,100  for  mission  work  among  the 
Portuguese  in  New  England.  It  has  missions  in 
East  Cambridge  and  New  Bedford.  In  Providence 
a  lay  worker  is  holding  service  in  a  hall.  The 
Congregationalists  have  a  mission  in  Rhode  Island. 

The  American  Bible  Society  makes  annually  a 
large  issue  of  Portuguese  Scriptures,  but  of  these  it 
is  evident  that  only  a  fraction  is  distributed  in  the 
United  States.    The  bulk  goes  to  South  America. 

The  Italians. 
There  were  in  the  United  States,  in  1900,  484,207 
persons  who  were  born  in  Italy;  of  these  about 


Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


three-fourths  were  in  the  New  England  and  Middle 
States.  In  the  three  following  years,  to  June  30, 
1903,  over  half  a  million  (570,888)  more  came.  Of 
these  five-sixths  were  from  southern  Italy. 

Various  causes  have  led  to  this  great  movement. 
The  population  of  Italy  in  1901  was  31,475,255, 
showing  a  gain  of  fourteen  per  cent,  in  twenty 
years,  almost  entirely  by  natural  causes.  The  births 
exceeded  the  deaths  in  a  single  year  b)'  400,000. 

^  Italy  is  already  a  crowded  country,  having  113 
persons  to  the  square  mile  of  territory,  in  contrast, 
e.  g.,  with  France,  which  has  only  seventy -three.  It 
is  oppressed  by  taxation  which  bears  hardest  on  the 
agriculturists  of  south  Italy.  America,  on  the  other 
hand,  heis  offered  abundant  and  remunerative 
labour.  Direct  steamship  lines  have  facilitated  and 
stimulated  the  movement.  Upon  a  visit  of  the 
Italian  premier  to  a  town  in  Southern  Italy  recently, 
the  mayor  of  the  place  welcomed  him  "  in  the  name 
of  eight  thousand  fellow-citizens,  of  whom  three 

'  thousand  are  in  America,  and  the  rest  are  preparing 
to  follow." 

There  is  a  wide  difference  between  northern 
Italians  from  Piedmont,  Lombardy  and  Venicia, 
and  those  who  come  from  south  of  Rome  and  from 
Sicily.  Those  of  the  north,  as  a  rule,  are  more 
intelligent  (thirteen  per  cent,  illiterate),  and  have 
larger  means.  The  bulk  of  the  emigrants  from 
northern  Italy,  however,  do  not  come  to  the 
United  States,  but  go  to  the  Argentine  Republic 


The  Romance  Tongues  71 


and  Brazil.  The  silk  workers  of  Paterson,  N.  J., 
and  elsewhere,  are  northern  Italians.  About  fifty 
thousand  of  them  are  engaged  in  grape  and  fruit 
culture  in  southern  California. 

In  southern  Italy,  the  intellectual  and  moral 
conditions,  like  the  pohtical  and  economic,  are 
much  lower  than  in  the  north.  About  one-half  of 
those  from  southern  Italy  cannot  read  nor  write  in 
any  language.  Three  out  of  four  of  them  are  men. 
They  are  herded  together  in  tenements,  boarding- 
houses  and  working  gangs.  They  are  to  be  found 
chiefly  in  and  about  the  great  cities  of  the  eastern 
states.  The  number  of  Itahans  in  New  York 
City  is  variously  estimated  at  from  150,000  to 
250,000.  Thirty  solid  blocks  on  the  East  Side  above 
1 00th  Street  are  peopled  by  southern  Italians. 
Solid  blocks  down-town  are  inhabited  by  northern 
Itahans.  There  are  nine  districts  in  Brooklyn  in 
which  they  congregate. 

Philadelphia  is  the  second  great  centre  for  the  > 
Italians.    The  number  there  is  estimated  at  45,000. 
They  occupy  twenty  solid  blocks  in  the  southeastern 
part   of  the   city,  and  still  larger  numbers  are 
distributed  in  other  localities. 

Boston  has  25,000,  and  several  of  the  great  manu- 
facturing centres  of  New  England  and  New  Jersey 
have  from  10,000  to  20,000  each. 

Jane  Addams  reports  10,000  southern  Italians  in 
a  single  compact  colony  in  Chicago,  and  they  are 
found  in  considerable  numbers  in  Detroit,  Denver, 


72       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


New  Orleans  and  Galveston.  A  relatively  small 
proportion  is  in  the  mining  regions  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Alabama.  They  have  formed  a  few  small 
agricultural  communities.  Many  of  the  Italian 
men  rove  from  place  to  place  with  the  exigencies 
of  work.  Some  of  them  return  to  Italy  permanently, 
but  the  number  is  relatively  small  and  grows 
proportionately  less,  year  by  year.  They  claim 
and  exercise  the  right  of  citizenship,  and  are  already 
attaining  political  office. 

Italians  are  fond  of  excitement,  of  music  and  of 
outdoor  life.  They  are  given  to  gambling,  but  are 
less  addicted  to  strong  drink  than  some  of  the  other 
nationalities  with  which  we  have  to  do. 

They  are  generally  eager  and  quick  to  learn,  and 
are  great  readers  when  they  have  acquired  the 
ability.  Forty-two  Italian  papers  are  reported  in 
the  United  States,  of  which  ten  are  in  New  York, 
six  in  Philadelphia,  five  in  California.  These  papers 
claim  a  circulation  of  over  100,000  copies. 

They  have  hundreds  of  mutual  aid  societies. 
The  membership  of  particular  societies  is  usually 
composed  of  persons  from  the  same  town  or 
district  in  Italy. 

In  religion,  practically  all  the  Itahans  coming 
here  are,  at  least  in  name,  Roman  Catholic.  That 
Church  has  been  making  effort  to  provide  for  them. 
The  Pope  recently  commended  the  Archbishop  of 
New  York  in  an  autograph  letter  for  his  zeal  in  this 
matter.    There  are  fifteen  Roman  Catholic  churches 


The  Romance  Tongues  73 


and  chapels  for  the  ItaHans  in  New  York  City 
and  they  are  found  generally  where  Italians 
congregate. 

But  church  duties  and  relations  sit  lightly  on 
many  of  the  American  Italians.  They  are  intense 
patriots,  and  the  hostility  of  the  Vatican  to  Italian 
unity  and  the  national  government,  coupled  with 
the  immorality  and  the  oppression  of  the  Church, 
particularly  in  southern  Italy,  has  done  much  to 
weaken  the  claim  of  the  Church  on  their  allegiance. 
While  the  Irish  have  found  in  the  Church  an  organ 
for  their  national  sentiment,  the  Italians  have  a 
wide-spread  conviction  that  the  Church  is  the 
enemy  of  popular  liberty.  It  is  said  that  the  power 
of  the  church  with  them  now  is  rather  a  social  than 
a  religious  bond ;  that  it  is  largely  the  women  who 
attend  the  church  services,  and  that  while  some 
men  are  earnest,  the  majority  are  indifferent,  and 
many  actively  hostile.  The  evident  presence 
of  the  Mafia  in  New  Orleans  in  1890,  and  in  New 
York  recently,  and  of  a  band  of  Italian  anarchists  in 
Patterson,  N.  J.,  show  that  there  are  some  lawless 
and  dangerous  elements  among  them. 

They  are  accessible  to  Protestant  missionary 
effort.  The  American  Bible  Society  issued,  in 
1903,  2,756  Bibles,  more  than  5,000  Testaments  and 
nearly  16,000  parts  of  the  Scriptures  in  Italian. 
The  issues  in  that  language  show  a  rapid  increase. 
A  published  list  of  Protestant  missionaries  among 
these   people,   gives   three   Episcopalians,  seven 


74       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


Congregationalists,  twelve  Methodists,  thirteen 
Baptists,  and  nineteen  Presbyterians.  The  Ameri- 
can Tract  Society,  the  Baptist  Publication  Society, 
the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication  and  Sunday- 
School  Work,  and  various  local  societies  are 
employing  Italian  colporteurs. 

Among  no  class  of  foreigners  has  American 
mission  work  seemed  to  yield  quicker,  larger  or 
more  abiding  returns. 


VII 


TONGUES  OF  THE  LEVANT 

The  emigration  fever  which  has  recently  been 
spreading  through  Russia,  Austria-Hungary  and 
the  Balkan  States  has  crossed  into  Asia  Minor  and 
has  swept  round  the  eastern  end  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean. The  very  regions  which  sent  devout  men  to 
Jerusalem  at  Pentecost  nearly  1,900  years  ago,  there 
to  hear  the  gospel  from  Peter's  lips,  are  now  send- 
ing men,  some  devout  but  many  not  so,  to  the  very 
doors  of  our  American  places  of  prayer. 

The  Turks. 

From  the  Turkish  Empire  has  recently  flowed  a 
rapidly  swelling  stream  of  immigrants.  They  have 
come  chiefly  from  Turkey  in  Asia  and  have  been 
Syrians  and  Armenians.  Of  the  Turkish  race  itself 
we  have  received  almost  1,000  in  four  years  and 
nearly  half  these  in  the  last  year.  One-third  of 
them  went  to  Massachusetts  and  more  than  a  fourth 
to  New  York.  As  a  race  they  are  Mohammedan 
and  no  Christian  missionary  work  for  them  dis- 
tinctly in  America  is  known.  The  Bible  Society 
prints  the  Scriptures  for  use  in  Turkey  in  Armeno- 
Turkish  and  Osmanli-Turkish,  and  a  few  copies  are 
issued  annually  in  the  United  States. 

75 


Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


The  Syrians. 

Modern  Syria,  as  a  part  of  the  Turkish  Empire, 
stretches  along  the  whole  eastern  end  of  the  Med- 
iterranean and  extends  eastward  to  the  Euphrates. 
It  includes  many  heterogeneous  nationahties  and 
tongues,  but  Arabic  is  generally  understood.  The 
region  swarms  with  reHgious  sects. 

In  the  last  four  immigration  years  17,517  Syrians 
came  into  the  United  States.  New  York  was  the 
destination  of  more  than  one  third  (6,25 1) ;  Massa- 
chusetts, of  2,721  ;  Pennsylvania,  of  2,296.  Ohio, 
Louisiana,  Connecticut,  Illinois  and  Indiana  were 
each  the  goal  of  from  100  to  200  a  year.  More 
than  one  half  could  neither  read  nor  write,  but  on 
the  other  hand  an  unusual  proportion  was  classed 
as  professional  or  as  "  skilled."  Of  the  latter  weavers 
were  the  most  numerous.  About  350  were  classed 
as  merchants,  again  a  very  high  proportion.  These 
figures  indicate  that  varied  ranks  of  society  are  rep- 
resented in  the  immigration.  Some  of  those  com- 
ing here  have  been  under  the  influence  of  Protestant 
missions  in  Syria. 

Gatherings  for  worship  are  held  by  them  in  New 
York,  Boston,  Chicago,  and  under  the  immediate 
auspices  of  the  Presbyterian  Synod  in  cities  of 
northern  New  Jersey. 

The  Roman  Catholics  have  mission  priests  for 
Syrians  in  Chicago  and  Boston. 


Tongues  of  the  Levant  77 


The  Armenians. 

The  Armenians  number  three  or  four  millions 
scattered  through  Asiatic  Russia,  Persia  and  Turkey; 
one  half  of  them  are  under  the  last  named  power. 
About  a  million  are  resident  in  the  region  known 
as  Armenia. 

Their  speech  is  of  the  Indo-European  family  and 
forms  one  of  its  main  branches.  Physically  they  are 
a  fine  race  and  they  have  developed  great  ability  as 
merchants  and  bankers.  They  are  among  the  keen- 
est and  ablest  of  our  recent  immigrants. 

Christianity  was  early  introduced  into  Armeniaand 
that  country  became,  in  the  fourth  century,  the  first 
Christian  state.  The  main  body  of  the  Armenian 
Church  remained  separate  from  both  the  Greek  and 
Roman  Communions ;  they  are  sometimes  called 
Gregorian  Christians  from  their  great  Apostle 
Gregory,  the  Illuminator.  But  their  religion  de- 
generated into  lifeless  and  ignorant  formahsm. 

In  1894-5  the  Armenians  were  subject  to  griev- 
ous massacres  by  the  Turks  on  the  ground  of  alleged 
insurrectionary  movements.  These  cruelties  are  at 
this  moment  (1904)  being  repeated. 

These  persecutions  have  given  rise  to  the  emigra- 
tion to  America,  which  is  very  recent.  Great  diffi- 
culty has  been  experienced  in  escaping  from  the 
Turkish  dominions.  In  1900  there  were  only 
2,671  persons  in  the  United  States  born  in  Asia,  ex- 
clusive of  China,  Japan  and  India.   As  these  figures 


yS       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 

include  Syrians  and  others,  the  number  of  Arme- 
nians then  here  must  have  been  very  small,  but  they 
have  been  coming  since  at  an  annual  average  of 
1,500,  so  that  at  least  5,000  are  now  here.  About 
three-fourths  are  men.  A  little  more  than  2,000 
went  to  Massachusetts,  a  little  less  than  that  num- 
ber to  New  York.  Rhode  Island  had  over  600  and 
New  Jersey  over  200.  Few  went  elsewhere.  Prot- 
estant missions  were  started  among  the  Armenians 
abroad  in  1831  and  have  a  considerable  following. 
The  Roman  Catholic  church  is  also  represented 
among  them  abroad  and  here. 

Protestant  services  are  held  in  the  Armenian 
tongue  in  New  York,  in  Paterson,  N.  J.,  in  New 
England  and  in  California.  The  Congregationalists 
are  active  among  them.  The  Presbyterians  report 
four  congregations  and  152  members. 

The  Greeks. 

There  were  8,655  persons  resident  in  the  United 
States  in  1900  who  had  been  born  in  Greece. 
More  than  half  of  these  were  found  about 
equally  distributed  to  the  three  states  of  Massachu- 
setts (1,843),  New  York  (i,573)  and  Illinois 
(1,570).  Since  1900  a  relatively  large  immigration 
has  set  in  (1901, — 5,919;  1902, — 8,115;  ^9^3, — 
14,376,  a  total  of  28,410  in  three  years).  They 
have  gone  almost  entirely  to  the  three  states  named 
above,  except  that  more  than  1,000  went  to  Penn- 
sylvania also  in  the  last  year.    Few  are  classed  as 


Tongues  of  the  Levant  79 


professional,  about  one-tenth  are  skilled  labourers, — 
accountants  and  mariners  being  most  numerous. 
Among  the  unskilled  labourers  an  unusual  propor- 
tion are  farm  labourers.  Agriculture  is  the  princi- 
pal industry  in  Greece  and  as  far  back  as  1901  it  is 
reported  that  the  exodus  of  young  farmers  to  Amer- 
ica was  causing  serious  anxiety  to  the  authorities 
there. 

What  we  know  as  the  Greek  Church  is  estab- 
lished by  law  and  almost  all  are  at  least  nominally 
adherents  of  it.  The  Holy  Synod  of  Greece  (the 
supreme  ecclesiastical  authority  there)  is  represented 
in  the  United  States  by  five  priests  and  churches 
and  claims  20,000  adherents. 

No  specific  Protestant  work  for  Greeks  in  Amer- 
ica has  been  discovered. 


VIII 


THE  CHINESE  AND  JAPANESE 

The  Chinese. 

There  were  in  1900  almost  ninety  thousand  (89,- 
863)  Chinese  in  the  United  States.  More  than  one- 
third  could  not  speak  English  at  all.  Almost  as 
many  could  neither  read  nor  write.  California  had 
over  40,000,  Oregon  nearly  10,000,  Washington 
about  3,500,  New  York  nearly  7,000.  Eight  other 
states  had  more  than  i,ooo  each,  and  some  China- 
men were  found  in  every  state  and  territory. 
Although  the  total  is  somewhat  less  than  formerly, 
they  are  still  being  smuggled  in  over  the  Canadian 
and  Mexican  borders,  in  spite  of  stringent  laws  and 
vigilant  officers.  Their  anxiety  to  learn  English 
makes  them  particularly  accessible  to  local  churches, 
and  many  churches  of  the  various  denominations  in 
the  cities  have  Chinese  Sunday-schools,  which  yield 
encouraging  results. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Mission  Board  appro- 
priated (1904)  5,200  for  work  among  the  Chinese 
in  this  country,  ,$1,500  available  in  New  York, 
$1,200  in  Oregon,  $500  in  New  Mexico,  and  the 
balance  in  CaHfornia. 

80 


The  Chinese  and  Japanese  81 


The  American  Missionary  Association  (Congre- 
gational) reports  over  twenty  schools  for  Chinese  on 
the  Pacific  Coast. 

The  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
celebrated  in  1903  fifty  years  of  work  for  the  China- 
men on  the  Pacific  Coast.  It  reports  (1904)  three 
principal  stations,  San  Francisco  and  Los  Angeles 
in  California  and  Portland  in  Oregon,  with  several 
outstations.  The  Occidental  Mission  Board  sustains 
a  Mission  Home  for  the  rescue  and  shelter  and 
training  of  young  girls  of  the  Chinese  and  other 
oriental  races.  Into  this  home  a  total  of  eighty 
was  received  last  year.  House  to  house  evangeli- 
zation and  schools  are  employed.  Two  ordained 
American  missionaries  and  their  wives,  American 
teachers  and  ordained  and  lay  Chinese  helpers  are 
employed  on  the  Pacific  coast.  A  Chinese  pastor 
carries  on  a  mission  in  New  York.  There  are  about 
200  Chinese  communicants  in  these  missions  and  a 
much  larger  constituency. 

The  American  Bible  Society  issued  from  the 
Bible  House,  in  New  York,  presumably  for  distri- 
bution in  this  country  and  probably  through  Chinese 
Sunday-schools  chiefly,  thirty-eight  Chinese  Bibles 
and  1,036  Testaments,  341  combined  Chinese  and 
English  Testaments  and  1,137  Chinese-English 
Gospels. 

The  American  Tract  Society  publishes  English- 
Chinese  text-books  and  twenty  or  more  Chinese 
tracts. 


82       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


The  Japanese. 

The  great  body  of  Japanese  under  the  United 
States  flag  is  found  in  Hawaii,  where  their  number 
approximates  100,000.  In  1900,  there  were  nearly 
25,000  in  the  United  States  proper,  and  the  immi- 
gration reports  to  June  30,  1903,  show  that  17,237 
have  come  since.  There  has  been  a  rapidly  grow- 
ing influx  of  these  people  in  the  past  few  years. 
Those  coming  represent  two  distinct  classes — the 
students  who  locate  in  the  cities  of  the  Pacific  Coast, 
and  the  agriculturists  that  are  taking  up  lands  in 
country  districts.  Much  the  greatest  number  is  in 
California,  but  Oregon,  Washington  and  Montana 
have  considerable  colonies.  Rev.  M.  C.  Harris,  su- 
perintendent of  the  Methodist  Mission  for  Japanese 
on  the  Pacific  Coast,  says  :  "  Their  numbers  are 
being  added  to  all  the  time,  owing  to  the  demand 
for  labour,  opportunities  for  business  undertakings 
and  the  growth  of  commerce.  The  Japanese  are 
leasing  land  for  fruit  and  sugar-beet  culture,  exhibit- 
ing the  courage  of  initiative  with  success.  All  are 
ambitious  for  success.  All  are  industrious  and  self- 
denying.  All  are  young  and  vigorous — surely  a 
hopeful  class  of  men.  Many  families  are  settling 
here  also."  In  the  census  year,  over  sixty  per  cent, 
could  not  speak  English  at  all,  and  recent  arrivals 
would  largely  increase  the  proportion.  The  present 
war  has  turned  this  tide  and  led  to  an  ebb.  But  this 
change  will,  doubtless,  be  only  temporary. 


The  Chinese  and  Japanese  83 


It  is  interesting  to  learn  that  the  Nishi  Hong- 
wangi,  a  Buddhist  organization,  has  opened  mis- 
sionary estabhshments  in  San  Francisco,  Sacra- 
mento, Fresno  and  Seattle,  and  has  active  priests 
at  work  among  their  people  to  keep  them  loyal  to 
Buddhism. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has  formed 
the  Pacific-Japanese  mission  with  two  districts,  one 
for  the  coast  States  and  the  other  in  Hawaii.  The 
whole  mission  reported  in  1902  sixteen  organized 
churches  and  a  membership  of  1,108;  over  1,000  of 
the  latter  were  in  the  States,  where  there  are  nine 
organized  churches,  three  with  buildings,  of  which 
that  in  San  Francisco  is  valued  at  ^$20,000,  an  An- 
glo-Japanese Training  School  for  workers,  and  many 
outstations.  They  also  publish,  bi-monthly,  a 
periodical  having  a  circulation  of  1,500,  and  print 
and  issue  tracts  in  Japanese. 

The  Baptists  are  working  among  the  Japanese  at 
Seattle  and  Tacoma,  and  their  home  missionary 
society  reported  two  missionaries  among  them  in 
1903. 

The  Presbyterian  Foreign  Mission  Board  has  five 
mission  stations  for  the  Japanese  in  California,  with 
lodging  houses,  classes  and  religious  exercises. 
The  total  constituency  (1904)  is  350.  The  Japanese 
bear  about  one-half  of  the  expense.  At  San  Fran- 
cisco and  Los  Angeles  churches  have  been  or- 
ganized. The  former  received  twenty-eight  on  pro- 
fession of  faith  last  year,  and  has  enrolled  378  since 


84       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 

its  organization.  Ten  were  baptized  last  year  in 
outstations.  Both  American  and  Japanese  workers 
are  employed. 

The  American  Bible  Society  had  issued,  in  1903, 
six  Japanese  Bibles,  53  Testaments  and  141  Gospels. 


IX 


SOME  OLDER  RESIDENTS 

The  American  Indians. 

Mission  work  among  the  Indians  would  be  en- 
titled chronologically  to  the  first  place  in  a  discus- 
sion of  missions  in  this  country  for  those  who  do 
not  speak  English.  Franciscan  monks  in  Florida, 
and  Jesuits  on  the  St.  Lawrence,  Puritans  in  New 
England  and  Presbyterians  on  Long  Island  and  in 
New  Jersey,  Quakers  and  Moravians  in  Pennsylva- 
nia,— these  and  others,  starting  Indian  missions 
among  their  earliest  activities  on  this  continent, 
have  continued  to  extend  and  prosecute  them. 
The  fact  that  the  first  Bible  printed  in  America,  and 
one  of  the  earliest  books,  was  in  the  Indian  tongue, 
will  never  lose  its  interest  or  suggestiveness. 

It  comes,  then  with  something  of  surprise,  after 
three  centuries,  that  all  the  Indians  are  not  yet 
reached  with  evangelistic  agencies,  and  that  of 
the  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  million  Indians 
in  the  United  States,  including  Alaska,  about 
a  hundred  thousand  do  not  speak  English. 
Nearly  one-third  of  the  Indians  (72,583),  in 
the  United  States  proper  were  of  the  latter  class. 
They  are  found  chiefly  in  Arizona  (15,076),  New 

85 


86       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


Mexico  (7,823),  Indian  Territory  (7,553),  South 
Dakota  (8,096).  Nebraska  had  about  5,000,  Okla- 
homa, Minnesota  and  Washington  more  than  3,000 
each,  California,  Idaho  and  Wisconsin  more  than 
2,000  each,  and  Michigan,  Oregon  and  Utah  more 
than  1,000  each. 

It  is  probable  that  the  number  of  Indians  has  de- 
creased ;  it  is  certain  that  they  are  disappearing  by 
mixture  with  other  elements  of  the  population. 
The  present  policy  of  the  Government  is  to  break 
up  the  tribal  entity  and  to  deal  with  them  as  indi- 
viduals. It  is  a  critical  period,  and  the  Indian  never 
needed  more  the  presence  and  help  of  Christian 
agencies  than  in  this  transition  stage.  Missionaries 
and  churches  that,  by  the  use  of  both  the  Indian 
tongue  and  English,  can  mediate  his  passage  from 
one  to  the  other,  have  a  peculiar  opportunity. 

The  commission  for  Catholic  missions  among  the 
Indians  reports  under  the  head  of  "  Indian  Mission 
Work "  (including  Alaska)  that  the 
Mission  Work,  j^^^j^^^  population  in  their  fields  is  over 
200,000,  the  Catholic  Indians  41,000,  churches 
eighty-eight,  priests  fifty-five,  schools  forty-five,  and 
pupils  2,314.  These  figures  include  Alaska,  but 
omit  the  Vicariate  of  Brownsville,  Southern  Texas, 
described  in  a  note  as  "  Rather  Mexican  Popula- 
tion." ^ 

The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  has  work  in 
fourteen  or  more  states  and  territories,  but  princi- 

>  Catholic  Directory,  1903,  p.  624. 


Some  Older  Residents 


87 


pally  in  the  Dakotas  and  Minnesota.  There  was 
expended  for  "  Indian  "  work  in  the  year  ending 
September  i,  1903,  ^65,697,  of  which  nearly  ^36,- 
000  was  in  South  Dakota,  and  ^18,105  in  Alaska. 

The  Baptist  Home  Missionary  Society  reports 
(1904)  work  among  fifteen  tribes,  in  which  twenty- 
three  ministers  and  twenty-six  teachers  are  em- 
ployed. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  reported  in 
1903,  thirty -three  missions,  of  which  seventeen  are 
in  Michigan,  mainly  among  the  Chippewas.  The 
tribes  among  which  they  work  number  less  than 
25,000  souls.  They  report  1,608  members.  Ten 
thousand  dollars  were  appropriated  to  this  work  for 
1904. 

In  1904  the  Presbyterian  Church  has  missions  in 
fourteen  states  and  territories,  exclusive  of  Alaska, 
sixty  ordained  missionaries,  of  whom  twenty-five 
are  Indians,  105  white  teachers  and  native  helpers ; 
sixty-five  native  churches,  with  4,644  members ; 
twenty  mixed  churches,  with  715  members.  Other 
denominations  are  also  represented  in  this  field. 

The  American  Bible  Society  granted  in  1903  the 
following  number  of  volumes  in  the  respective  In- 
dian dialects  :  Dakota,  nine ;  Choctaw,  forty-nine ; 
Cherokee,  forty-six  ;  Muskogee,  177  ;  Ojibwa,  three. 

The  Mexicans. 

This  name  is  here  applied,  as  is  usual  in  this  con- 
nection, to  the  mixed  race  of  Spaniards  and  Indians, 


88       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


which  in  the  United  States  has  its  principal  seat  in 
New  Mexico  and  contiguous  territories.  On  the 
Spanish  side  through  the  settlement  of  Mexico  as 
well  as  on  the  Indian  side  they  are  entitled  to  rank 
among  the  earliest  settlers. 

In  1900  there  were  over  one  hundred  thousand 
persons  in  the  United  States  who  had  been  born  in 
Numbers  ^I^xico.  There  was  at  least  double 
that  number  born  here  of  Mexican 
descent,  so  that  the  estimate  of  300,000  for  this  ele- 
ment of  our  population  is  conservative. 

New  Mexico  had  53,931  native  whites  over  ten 
years  of  age  and  8,272  of  foreign  parentage  who 
could  not  speak  English,  almost  all  of  whom  were 
Mexicans.  It  had  the  greatest  proportion  of  native 
white  illiterates  found  in  any  state  or  territory. 
Texas  had  over  one  hundred  thousand  who  could  not 
speak  English,  and  nearly  eighty  thousand  of  these 
were  Mexicans. 

Arizona  had  over  12,000  of  foreign  parentage 
who  could  not  speak  English,  to  which  a  considera- 
ble number  of  native  whites  of  Mexican  descent  are 
to  be  added. 

The  following  description  of  their  condition  and 

character  is  given  by  Rev.  S.  H.  Doyle,  D.  D., 

Ph.  D.    "  The  wealthier  ones  live  in 
Characteristics.  ,  ,    .  , 

the  towns,  possess  their  own  homes, 

and  enjoy  the  advantages  of  civilization.    But  this 

class  is  small  and  growing  smaller.    The  masses  of 

the  people  who  live  on  the  outskirts  of  the  towns,  in 


Some  Older  Residents 


the  country  and  on  the  ranches  are  in  a  deplorable 
condition.  Their  houses  are  usually  mud  huts  with 
dirt  floors,  and  only  the  scantiest  furniture.  Early 
marriages  and  large  famihes  are  the  rule.  Idleness 
is  wide-spread.  In  their  home  life  they  are  kind  to 
one  another.  The  vices  of  the  Mexicans  are  glaring 
and  revolting.  The  crowding  of  large  families  into 
one  living  and  sleeping  room  is  necessarily  produc- 
tive of  much  evil.  Intemperance  from  wine  drink- 
ing, and  gambling  are  prevalent.  Saloons,  gambling 
hells  and  other  dens  of  iniquity  exist,  and  are  freely 
patronized. 

"  The  religion  of  the  Mexicans  is  a  mixture  of 
paganism  and  CathoHcism.  The  people  are  ignorant, 
superstitious  and  fanatical."  ^ 

The  Roman  Catholic  Directory  gives  for  the 
Archdiocese  of  Santa  Fe  and  the  Diocese  of  Tuc- 
son, which  together  cover  New  Mex- 
ico and  Arizona,  fifty-eight  churches 
with  sixty-eight  secular  and  twenty-one  regular 
clergy,  466  mission  stations  and  chapels ;  twenty- 
three  brothers,  124  religious  women  (Santa  Fe  only 
reported) ;  fifteen  colleges  or  academies  for  boys 
and  for  girls,  fourteen  other  schools,  two  orphan 
asylums,  four  hospitals,  day  and  boarding  schools 
for  Indians ;  4,660  young  people  under  Catholic 
care,  and  an  estimated  Catholic  population  of  115,- 
000  white  and  1 8,000  Indians  in  New  Mexico  and 
40,000  in  Arizona. 

•  Presbyterian  Home  Missions,  pp.  207,  sq. 


go       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


The  Baptists  have  a  missionary  in  Colorado,  three 
in  New  Mexico,  two  schools  and  five  churches  with 
ninety-two  members  in  1 903. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Spanish  Mission  Con- 
ference, covering  all  work  for  these  people,  reported 
in  1902,  1,894  communicants  and  810  probationers 
in  forty-six  charges,  many  including  several  preach- 
ing points.  They  had  a  few  day  schools  and  a 
Boys'  Biblical  and  Industrial  School  at  Albu- 
querque. 

The  Congregationalists  have  in  New  Mexico  a 
superintendent,  six  schools,  twelve  teachers,  390 
pupils,  two  native  churches  with  thirty-seven  mem- 
bers. 

"  In  April,  1904,  the  Presbyterian  Church  re- 
ported in  New  Mexico  thirty-one  churches  among 
Spanish-speaking  people,  with  a  membership  of 
over  a  thousand.  In  California,  there  are  five 
churches  with  a  membership  of  about  two  hundred, 
and  in  Colorado  twelve  churches  with  a  membership 
of  nearly  four  hundred.  In  New  Mexico,  four  of 
the  ordained  missionaries  are  natives  and  in  Colo- 
rado, three.  In  addition,  there  are  about  twenty- 
five  evangelists  and  helpers,  all  of  whom  are  na- 
tives." ^ 

The  Welsh. 

The  Welsh  are  introduced  in  this  chapter,  not  be- 
cause some  persons  have  thought  they  recognized  a 

'  R.  M.  Craig,  Our  Mexicans,  p.  34. 


Some  Older  Residents  91 


kinship  between  the  Welsh  language  and  certain 
Indian  dialects,  nor  because  of  early  settlement  here, 
although  some  Welsh  came  early,  nor  yet  because 
they  represent  alone  in  America  religious  work  in 
a  language  of  the  Celts,  perhaps  the  oldest  branch 
of  the  Indo-Germanic  family  in  Europe;  but  be- 
cause they  do  thus  stand  alone  and  for  thern  some 
of  the  earliest  efforts  of  American  churches  to  give 
the  gospel  to  people  of  a  foreign  speech  were  put 
forth ;  and  even  more,  because  they  afford  an  ex- 
perience for  guidance  in  this  matter. 

There  were  in  the  United  States  in  1900,  93,744 
persons  born  in  Wales.  Pennsylvania  had  more 
than  a  third  (35,453),  Ohio,  11,481,  New  York, 
7,304.  Nearly  three  thousand  have  arrived  since. 
Doubtless  a  great  majority  speak  English.  But 
Welsh  is  still  the  ordinary  language  of  more  than  a 
million  people  and  we  have  some  of  them. 

During  the  last  century  Congregationalists,  Pres- 
byterians, Methodists  and  Baptists  all  prosecuted 
missions  in  the  Welsh  tongue  and  es-  churches 
tablished  churches  composed  almost  Diminishing, 
exclusively  of  this  race.  Welsh  churches  are  now 
rapidly  diminishing  in  number  and  strength  from 
two  main  causes.  One  the  supplanting  of  the 
Welsh  miner  by  other  nationalities  in  the  coal  re- 
gions, and  the  consequent  scattering  of  the  old 
community.  The  other  the  turning  of  Welsh 
churches  into  English-speaking  churches  or  the 
gradual  absorption  of  their  constituency  into  the 


92       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


latter.  This  taken  in  connection  with  what  is 
happening  in  many  of  the  older  German  churches, 
shows  that  churches  in  another  tongue  will  not 
continue  longer  than  a  few  generations  at  most. 
But  the  immediate  benefits  conferred  and  the  ulti- 
mate easier  incorporation  of  the  constituency  sepa- 
rately or  as  whole  with  our  English-speaking 
churches,  illustrated  by  the  Welsh,  warrants  and 
even  calls  for  the  establishment  in  connection  with 
our  American  denominations,  of  churches  in  which 
other  languages  shall  be  used  at  first. 

The  Methodists  appropriate  less  than  $i,ooo 
for  Welsh  missions,  principally  in  Philadelphia. 
The  Presbyterians  report  six  congregations  with 
292  members.  There  are  178  congregations  of 
W^elsh  Calvinistic  Methodists  (classed  as  Presby- 
terians), but  in  how  many  Welsh  is  used  cannot  be 
stated. 

The  American  Bible  Society  issues  about  500 
Welsh  Bibles  and  twice  as  many  Testaments 
annually. 


X 


ARE  MISSIONS  IN  THESE  LANGUAGES 
NEEDED  ? 

Every  man  needs  the  gospel.  Every  Christian, 
to  the  extent  of  his  opportunity,  is  debtor  to  the 
man  who  has  it  not.  Home  mission  Qospel  Not 
effort  is  widely  and  rightly  put  forth  on  Known, 
behalf  of  our  English-speaking  population.  Those 
of  foreign  speech  have  an  equal  claim,  and 
just  now  greater  need.  Particularly  is  this  true  of 
the  mass  of  recent  immigrants  from  eastern  and 
southern  Europe.  Rev.  Vaclav  Losa,  a  Bohemian 
Presbyterian  minister  who  has  wide  experience 
East  and  West,  in  city,  country  and  industrial  dis- 
tricts, writes  of  his  present  work  among  Slavs  in 
western  Pennsylvania :  "  Our  converts  come  from 
Roman  Catholic,  Greek  Catholic,  Lutheran  and  Re- 
formed people.  The  plainest  preaching  of  the 
simple  gospel  will  reach  these  people.  It  must  be 
taken  for  granted  when  you  address  them  that  they 
do  not  know  even  the  alphabet  of  Christianity,  and 
when  they  are  converted  they  tell  you  that  you 
were  right.  Protestant  or  not  Protestant,  they  are 
spiritually  dead,  ignorant  of  the  fundamental  Chris- 
tian doctrines  and  full  of  superstition."  Similar 
testimony  comes  from  many  quarters. 

93 


94       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


If  religious  work  is  to  be  done  for  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  souls  now  in  the  United  States  and 

English  Not    f^i"  hundreds  of  thousands  more  who 

Understood,  are  coming,  a  foreign  tongue  must  be 
employed.  They  do  not  understand  English,  and, 
as  adults,  will  never  acquire  it  sufficiently  to  be 
reached  through  it.  Moreover,  settling  as  they 
frequently  do  in  large  and  compact  communities, 
the  native  language  of  the  parents  will  be  handed 
down  through  a  generation  or  more  in  those  locali- 
ties, as  has  been  the  case  with  German.  To  estab- 
lish now  a  church  for  these  parents  and  children  in 
a  foreign  tongue,  is  laying  the  best  possible  founda- 
tion for  an  English-speaking  church  in  the  future. 
In  this  particular,  as  in  many  another,  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  sets  Protestants  an  example  of 
wisdom.  As  the  detailed  record  shows,  that  Church 
has  priests  and  services,  as  far  as  practicable,  for 
those  using  each  of  the  several  languages  repre- 
sented in  its  constituency. 

The  number  of  churches  and  missions  in  foreign 
tongues  in  the  United  States  is  utterly  inadequate 
esent  Work  to  the  need.    Although  earlier  immi- 

Inadequate.  grants,  like  the  Germans  and  Scandi- 
navians, may  be  said  to  be  relatively  well  supplied, 
yet  every  agency  working  among  them  has  more 
opportunity  and  call  for  work  than  means  to  do  it. 
But  what  of  later  comers  ?  There  are  enough  per- 
sons of  Bohemian  parentage  in  Chicago  to  make  a 
city  the  size  of  Hartford,  Conn.,  or  Trenton,  N.  J. 


Are  Missions  in  These  Languages  Needed  ?  95 


A  half-dozen  weak  missions  represent  the  Prot- 
estant work  for  them.  New  York  has  enough 
persons  of  Itahan  parentage  to  make  a  city  larger 
than  Louisville  or  Minneapolis,  and  the  Protestant 
missionary  force,  ministerial  and  lay,  is  less  than 
ten.  There  are  enough  Magyars  to  repeople  Dela- 
ware, but  there  are  less  than  a  score  of  Protestant 
ministers  among  them.  There  are  enough  Slovaks 
to  repeople  Montana ;  there  are  as  many  Poles  who 
do  not  speak  English,  as  there  were  people  in  North 
Dakota  in  1900;  and  almost  nothing  has  yet  been 
done  by  American  Protestant  Churches  to  evan- 
gelize either.  What  of  the  tens  of  thousands  from 
the  Balkan  states  and  the  Levant,  and  the  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  Jews  ? 

But  the  complexity  and  difficulty  of  the  work 
when  looked  at  in  detail  is  calculated  to  appall. 

The  variety  of  languages  is  so  great, 

,  V       ,   ,     ,        c  ■  r       •  Difficulties. 

the  obstacles  01  ignorance,  of  preju- 
dice, of  indifference,  of  active  hostility  even,  are  so 
many — the  demand  for  men  so  instant  and  for 
means  so  large — the  possibilities  of  denominational 
interference  so  imminent — that  there  is  little  won- 
der the  Churches  hesitate  to  take  up  this  work  ag- 
gressively. But  the  foreign  mission  work,  in 
which  all  the  Churches  engage,  is  far  more  com- 
plex and  difficult.  No  one  denomination  is  called 
upon  to  minister  to  all  nationalities  and  everywhere. 
There  is  a  most  appropriate  field  here  for  denomina- 
tional comity  and  the  assignment  of  fields.  Even 


Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


if  the  whole  need  cannot  be  met  at  once,  to  do 
even  a  part  will  be  good. 

There  are  manifest  encouragements  for  prosecut- 
ing this  work.    Just  settling   in  this  new  land, 

under  new  conditions,  these  people  of 
Encouragements..  ,  ^ 

foreign  speech  are  unusually  accessible 

to  new  formative  influences.  The  comparatively 
new  gospel  has  a  peculiar  charm  and  impressiveness 
for  them  when,  in  this  strange  land,  it  comes  to 
them  in  their  own  tongue,  wherein  they  were  born. 
Dr.  Emrich  of  the  Congregational  Church  recently 
illustrated  this  by  the  feehng  which  he  himself  has 
for  the  German  he  learned  at  his  mother's  knee,  and 
cited  the  pathos  with  which  Jacob  Riis,  that  gen- 
uine American,  alludes  to  his  old  Danish  home  and 
his  old  Danish  language.  Work  among  them 
brings  returns.  Over  three  hundred  Protestant 
Magyars  presented  themselves  as  appHcants  for 
church  membership  upon  the  first  Sunday,  when  it 
was  proposed  to  organize  a  Hungarian  Protestant 
Church  among  them  at  Perth  Amboy,  N.  J.  In 
twenty-two  years  Rev.  Antonio  Arrighi,  the  Italian 
Presbyterian  minister  of  New  York  has  received 
1,200  Italians  into  the  church  on  profession  of  faith 
and  has  been  instrumental  in  sending  fourteen 
students  into  the  ministry.  In  evidence  of  conver- 
sion, in  missionary  zeal  and  in  liberality  converts 
among  the  people  who  do  not  speak  English,  shame 
many  English-speaking  Christians. 


XI 


AGENCIES  WHICH  MAY  BE  EMPLOYED 

The  Bible  Society  does  an  invaluable  service  in 
providing  the  Scriptures  in  every  language  needed. 
These  are  sold  at  a  very  moderate    xhe  Printlag 
price ;  or,  upon  occasion,  are  donated.  Press. 

The  American  Tract  Society  and  the  Denomina- 
tional Publication  Societies  furnish  some  religious 
books  and  tracts  in  many  languages.  But,  in  gen- 
eral, it  appears  that  there  is  need  for  more  fresh, 
pertinent  and  attractive  literature  of  this  sort, 
adapted  to  present  conditions  in  America. 

Even  if  he  will  not  read  books  or  tracts,  every- 
body who  can  do  so,  reads  newpapers  and  period- 
icals in  our  day.  Able,  bright,  evangelical  religious 
papers  for  people  of  many  of  the  foreign  tongues 
are  lacking.  Some  common  agency,  like  the  Tract 
Society  might  undertake  their  publication  on  a  large 
scale  with  the  cooperation  of  the  denominations 
and  for  them.  Where  there  are  sufficient  churches 
of  one  speech  in  a  denomination  to  justify  it,  a  de- 
nominational paper,  properly  conducted,  would 
probably  prove  one  of  the  best  evangelizing,  edu- 
cating and  unifying  agencies,  and  so  would  justify 
missionary  expenditure  to  start  and  maintain  it. 

97 


98       Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


To  circulate  the  Bible  and  Christian  literature,  to 
explain  and  impress  their  teachings  and  to  reinforce 
The  Colporteur  the  effects  produced  by  them,  "  liv- 

and  Visitor,  [^g  epistles  "  are  needed.  One  per- 
son can  thus  reach  in  some  measure  almost  any 
variety  of  speech.  The  Tract  Society  agent  on 
Ellis  Island  distributes  literature  in  twenty-two 
languages.  The  agent  of  the  Pennsylvania  Bible 
Society  at  Philadelphia  distributed  Testaments 
in  forty  languages  in  a  single  year.  The  col- 
porteur or  visitor  reaches  many  who  could 
not  or  would  not  attend  public  services.  Such 
workers  can  explore  the  field,  furnish  definite  data 
and  prepare  the  way  for  organizations.  Trained 
women,  like  those  furnished  by  the  Bethlehem 
school,  Cleveland,  have  proved  very  efficient  in 
such  work.  The  organization  of  deaconesses,  em- 
ployed in  many  Lutheran  bodies  now,  and  being 
taken  up  by  other  denominations,  is  a  promising 
agency  for  this  as  well  as  other  forms  of  missionary 
work,  particularly  in  cities. 

In  many  cities  and  in  the  coal  regions  of  Penn- 
sylvania the  kindergarten  has  proved  a  most  valu- 
Kindergartens  and  able  agency  for  mission  work  among 
Other  Schools,  people  of  other  speech.  Although 
it  is  of  advantage  that  the  teacher  should  know 
other  languages,  English  alone  is  requisite,  because 
it  only  is  used  in  the  school.  In  this  way  the  chil- 
dren are  early  brought  under  Christian  instruction, 
and  access  to  the  home  and  influence  there  is  se- 


Agencies  Which  May  be  Employed  99 

cured  by  the  teacher.  Schools  at  night  or  other 
time  for  instruction  in  English  and  other  branches 
confer  an  immediate  benefit,  and  widen  the  con- 
stituency and  influence  of  the  church  or  mission 
employing  them.  The  example  of  certain  Slavic 
priests  who  have  classes  to  train  their  parishioners 
for  citizenship  might  well  be  followed. 

The  Sunday-school  offers  one  of  the  very  best 
and  most  available  missionary  agencies.  Already 
widely  used  it  should  be  pressed  more  widely  and 
actively  by  English-speaking  churches  in  local 
touch  with  any  people  of  foreign  speech.  Where 
no  organization  is  ready  to  initiate  and  carry  on 
such  schools,  earnest  Christian  individuals  will  find 
rare  opportunity  for  service  in  doing  so.  Much  of 
the  best  work  for  those  of  foreign  speech  has 
started  by  such  individual  interest  and  action. 

Only  through  organized  churches  can  the  results 
of  Christian  work  be  conserved,  Christian  character 
be  fully  developed,  and  rehgion  per-  churches  and 
manently  propagated.  As  to  organi-  Ministers, 
zation  and  usages,  it  seems  fair  and  wise  to  concede 
much  in  non-essentials  to  the  preferences  and  old 
customs  of  the  worshipers  themselves. 

To  find  suitable  ministers  for  churches  of  foreign 
speech  is  the  feature  of  greatest  difficulty  in  this 
work  to-day.  Where  there  are  Protestant  churches 
abroad,  ministers  trained  there  may  sometimes  be 
obtained.  But,  while  there  are  notable  exceptions, 
the  general  experience  of  the  American  ChiarchQS 


loo      Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 


seems  to  be  that  it  is  unsatisfactory  to  employ  here 
ministers  of  foreign  birth  and  training.  Even 
where  there  is  no  question  of  character  raised,  their 
views  and  practices  usually  differ  widely  from  those 
prevailing  here,  and  they  are  accordingly  unfitted 
to  bring  the  people  into  harmony  with  American 
church  life.  It  is  far  better  to  educate  here  the 
men  who  are  to  work  here. 

The  experience  of  the  Churches  most  actively  en- 
gaged in  this  work  demonstrates  the  value  of  general 
missionaries  or  superintendents  for  the  several  nation- 
alities ;  who,  speaking  their  language,  can  prospect 
for  locations  and  can  assist  in  the  organization  and 
direction  of  the  local  churches,  while  not  themselves 
confined  to  one  field. 

Some  special  training  is  needful  for  those 
who  are  going  to  do  religious  work  in  a 
Training  particular  language,  whether  as  min- 
Schools.  isters  or  otherwise.  Provision  for 
training  ministers  who  are  to  use  other  languages 
than  English  has  already  been  made  by  some 
theological  seminaries.  "  Bible  Schools  "  which 
prepare  for  lay  work  by  a  course  in  the  Bible 
and  other  studies  in  English,  together  with  separate 
courses  in  the  use  of  the  particular  language  to  be 
employed  subsequently,  have  been  established. 
The  combination  of  various  nationalities  in  the  same 
school  which  this  scheme  contemplates,  economizes 
the  educational  force ;  tends  to  dissipate  race  preju- 
dices, and  promotes  unity  and  adaptability  in  subse- 


Agencies  Which  May  be  Employed  loi 


quent  work.  Such  schools  are  too  few  and  their 
support  too  inadequate  for  the  great  opportunities 
which  are  opened  through  them.  Just  now  they 
hold  the  key  to  the  situation.  To  equip  thoroughly 
seminaries  and  schools  for  this  purpose,  to  maintain 
them  liberally  and  to  enlarge  their  constituency  are 
chief  among  the  ends  to  which  effort  and  gifts 
should  now  be  devoted  by  those  who  desire  to 
further  religious  work  among  our  non-English- 
speaking  population. 

But  to  make  any  agencies  for  their  evangelization 
effective  there  must  be  interest  in  the  people  of  for- 
eign speech  and  sympathy  with  them  spjrjt  nad 
on  the  part  of  English-speaking  Chris-  Motive, 
tians.  It  is  not  enough  that  without  regard  to  mo- 
tive, we  have  the  gospel  preached  to  them  in  their 
own  tongues.  The  utterance  of  the  great  apostle 
to  the  Gentiles  is  true  in  a  manward  reference  as 
well  as  a  Godward,  "  If  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of 
men  and  of  angels,  but  have  not  love,  I  am  become 
sounding  brass  or  a  clanging  cymbal"  (i  Cor.  13:1 
A.  v.).  There  is  much  discussion  as  to  what  are 
proper  national  laws  regarding  immigration,  but  the 
Christian  law,  regarding  the  immigrant  was  written 
long  ago  in  the  words  :  "  As  we  have  therefore  op- 
portunity, let  us  do  good  unto  all  men." 

Patriotic  considerations  call  us  to  cultivate  this 
spirit  and  to  employ  these  agencies.  Those  of 
native  speech  other  than  English,  together  with 
their  descendants,  will  soon  be  in  the  majority  here, 


102      Our  People  of  Foreign  Speech 

if  indeed  they  are  not  already  so.  Read  the  names 
on  Broadway,  see  the  troops  of  children  on  the  East 
Side  in  New  York,  if  you  do  not  care  to  consult 
statistics.  Of  our  thirty-eight  cities  having  more 
than  100,000  inhabitants  in  1900,  only  five  had  a 
majority  of  native  whites  who  were  born  of  parents 
who  had  themselves  been  born  here.  More  non- 
Enghsh-speaking  immigrants  than  English-speaking 
have  come  the  past  eighty-four  years  and  English- 
speaking  immigration  has  well  nigh  ceased  now. 
If  our  American  national  and  reUgious  Hfe  is  to  be 
perpetuated  here  it  must  be  infused  into  those 
whose  native  speech  is  not  English  and  into  their 
descendants. 

God  has  richly  endowed  our  American  churches 
with  spiritual  and  material  gifts.  By  His  providence 
in  bringing  to  the  very  doors  of  our  houses  of 
prayer  these  men  out  of  every  nation  under  heaven. 
He  is  giving  to  our  churches  a  call  like  that  to  the 
Jerusalem  church  at  Pentecost.  Possible  as  it  is  for 
us,  shall  we  not  emulate  the  Jerusalem  Christians 
and  provide  that  those  who  cannot  understand  our 
speech  shall  hear  every  man  in  his  own  tongue 
wherein  he  was  born  the  wonderful  works  of  God  ? 


Table  showing  number  of  white  persons  of foreign  parentage  lo 
years  of  age  and  over  who  cannot  speak  English,  distributed 
according  to  principal  birthplace  of  parents,  for  states  and 
territories  having  at  least  §00  of  this  class.  From  Report 
1 2th  census,  igoo.  Vol.  II,  p.  cxxvi. 


STATES  AND  TERRITO- 
RIES. 


North  Atlantic  division 

Maine  

New  Hampshire  

Vermont  

Massachusetts  

Rhode  Island  

Connecticut  

New  York  

New  Jersey  

Pennsylvania  

South  Atlantic  division 

Delaware   

Maryland  

Virginia  

West  Virginia  

Florida  

North  Central  division : 
Ohio  

Indiana  

Illinois  

Michigan  

Wisconsin  

Minnesota  


Number 

who 
cannot 

speak 
English. 


16,496 
17,706 
4,162 

78,019 


>7.559 
27,131 

222,804 

49,110 
162,693 

1,537 
7,702 

833 
3.648 

5,773 
52,864 

12,050 
104,942 

50,939 

91,821 
7«,634 


Principal  birthplace  of  parents. 


Canada  (French),  14,123;  all  other,  2,373. 
Canada  (French),  15,304:  all  other,  2,402. 
Canada  (French),   2,280;  Italy,  1,155;  ^'l 
other,  727, 

Canada  (French),  32,593;  Italy,  11,530;  Po- 
land, 10,492:  Russia,  4,187;  Sweden,  1,560; 
Germany,  1,373;  Austria,  1,251;  all  other 
(Portugal  principally),  15,033. 

Canada  (French),  9,621:  Italy,  4,143;  Po- 
land, 959;  all  other,  2,836. 

Italy,  7,775;  Canada  (French),  4,617:  Poland, 
4,448:  Hungary,  2,274;  Russia,  2,055:  Aus- 
tria, 1,757;  (jermany,  1,691;  all  other, 
2,514- 

Italy,  74,581;  Russia,  40,154;  Germany, 
30,462;  Poland,  23,476;  Austria,  23,837; 
Hungary,  9,404;  Bohemia,  6,202;  all  other, 
15,688. 

Italy,  16,750:  Germany,  6,908;  Hungary, 
6,818;  Austria,  5,240;  Poland,  5,129;  Rus- 
sia, 4,335;  all  other,  3,930. 

Poland,  34,595;  Austria,  34,172;  Italy,  31,266; 
Hungary,  24.098;  Germany,  14,861;  Rus- 
sia, 13,122;  all  other,  10,579. 

Poland,  588;  Italy,  553;  all  other,  396. 
Germany,  2,479:  Russia,  2,152;  Poland,  904; 

Italy,  829;  all  other,  1,338. 
Hungary,  342:  all  other,  491. 
Italy,  1,653;  Hungary,  508;  Austria,  483; 

Poland,  294:  Russia,  251:  all  other,  459. 
Italy,    1,080:  all  other  (Cuba  and  West 

Indies  principally),  4,693. 

Germany,  18,345;  Hungary,  6,690:  Poland, 
6,359;  Bohemia,  5,754;  Italy,  4,991;  Aus- 
tria, 4,915:  all  other,  5,810. 

Germany,  5,614;  Poland,  1,647;  Austria, 
1,173;      other,  3,616. 

Germany,  30,070;  Poland,  25,252:  Bohemia, 
12,926;  Italy,  8,964;  Sweden,  6,565:  Russia, 
5,855;  Austria,  4,731:  all  other,  10,579. 

Germany,  12,968;  Poland,  11,086;  Canada, 
(French),  3,444;  Italy,  2,658:  Sweden, 
2,333;  ^'i  other  (Holland  and  Finland 
principally),  18,450. 

Germany,  50,119:  Poland,  13,690;  Norway, 
8,501:  Bohemia,  4.864:  Sweden,  2,934; 
Austria,  2,036;  all  other,  9,677. 

Norway,  17,702;  Germany,  16,631:  Sweden, 
14,807;  Bohemia,  4,368;  Austria,  2,902;  all 
other,  15,224. 

103 


STATES  AND  TERRITO- 
RIES. 


North  Central  division- 
Continued: 

Iowa  

Missouri  

North  Dakota  

South  Dakota  

Nebraska  

Kansas  

South  Central  division: 

Kentucky  

Tennessee  , 

Alabama  

Louisiana  

Texas  

Oklahoma  

Arkansas  

Western  division: 

Montana  

Wyoming  

Colorado  

New  Mexico  

Arizona  

Utah  

Idaho  

Washington  

Oregon  

California  


Number 

who 
cannot 

speak 
English. 


26,395 
'5,372 
18,873 

14,059 
18,481 

11,326 


1,924 
695 
785 
8,585 
100,592 


1,432 
931 

3, '46 

1,970 
6,800 

8,272 

12,002 

2,251 


942 
3,875 


2,131 
20,149 


Principal  birthplace  of  parents. 


Germany,  12,711;  Norway,  3,244;  Bohemia, 

2,935;  Sweden,  2,271;  all  other.  5,234. 
Germany,  8,806;  Italy,  1,401;  Poland,  1,036; 

all  other,  4,129. 
Russia,  7,142;   Norway,  4,349;  Germany, 

1,758;  all  other,  5,624. 
Russia,  5,558;  Norway,  2,632;  Germany, 

2,066;  all  other,  3,803. 
Germany,  6,226;  bohemia,  5,031;  Sweden, 

1,852;  Russia,  1,690;  Poland,  1,020;  aU 

other,  2,662. 
Russia,  3,117;  Germany,  3,012;  Sweden, 

I,  475;  all  other,  3,722. 

Germany,  1,256;  all  other,  668. 

Italy,  345;  all  other,  350. 

Italy,  284;  Germany,  201;  all  other,  300. 

Italy,  6,317;  France,  1,356;  all  other,  912. 

Germany,  0,059;  Bohemia,  5,969;  Austria, 

3,307;  Italy,  1,382;  Poland,  1,240;  all  other 

(Mexico  principally),  79,545 
Russia.  511;  Germany,  370;  Bohemia,  296; 

all  other,  255. 
Germany,  333;  Italy,  219;  Switzerland,  108; 

all  other,  271. 

Austria,  933:  Italy,  793;  Canada  (French), 

246;  all  other,  1,174. 
Austria,  511;  Italy,  368;  all  other,  1,091. 
Italy,  2,594;  Austria,  2,007;  Russia,  482;  all 

other,  1,717. 
Italy,  198;  Austria,  127;  all  other  (Mexico 

principally),  7,047. 
Italy,  186;  all  other  (Mexico  principally), 

II,  816. 

Denmark,  6ri;  Sweden,  597;  Italy,  270;  Nor- 
way, 170:  Switzerland,  161;  Germany,  117; 
all  other,  325. 

Italy,  269:  Sweden,  189;  all  other,  484. 

Italy,  561;  Germany,  545;  Russia,  456; 
Sweden,  428-  Norway,  391;  Austria,  304; 
all  other,  1,190. 

Germany,  448;  Russia,  281;  Italy,  239;  Swit- 
zerland, 222:  Sweden,  120;  all  other,  821. 

Italy,  6,738;  France,  1,386;  Germany,  1,073; 
Switzerland,  697;  Austria.  451;  all  other 
(Portugal  and  Mexico  principally),  9,804. 


104 


Where  Our  Immigrants  Settle 


Diagrams  showing  the  distribution  of  the  foreign- 
born  living  in  the  United  States  and  the  rela- 
tive numbers  of  the  different  nationalities. 

By  the  courtesy  of  Doubleday,  Page  &  Company, 
Publishers  of  The  World's  Work,  we  are  permitted 
to  reproduce  diagrams  prepared  by  Mr.  F.  W. 
Hewes  and  pubhshed  in  The  World's  Work,  Octo- 
ber, 1903.  In  explanation  of  these  diagrams,  their 
author,  Mr.  Hewes,  remarks : 

"  When  immigrants  come  to  the  United  States, 
where  do  they  go?  To  what  extent  do  people  of 
alien  races  colour  the  various  parts  of  the  country  ? 
These  questions  are  answered  by  the  accompanying 
diagrams.  The  circles  show  how  the  total  numbers 
of  the  different  nationalities  compare,  and  the  dots 
on  the  maps  show  where  these  aliens  live.  Each 
small  dot  represents  1,000  foreign-born  persons. 
Each  large  dot  represents  10,000  such  persons  in 
one  city.  The  small  dots  grouped  compactly 
around  a  large  dot  add  so  many  thousands  to  the 
10,000  in  that  city.  Compact  groups  of  five  to 
nine  dots  mark  cities  having  from  5,000  to  9,000 
such  persons.  Cities  having  less  than  5,000  aliens 
are  not  indicated." 


"5 


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